TiVo Tops Targets; Issues Bright Q4 Outlook

Shares of video-recording pioneer TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) were up 5.7% to $6.32 in extended trading Wednesday after it narrowed its Q3 loss on an 11% revenue gain. Its Q3 loss of $8.2 million ($0.08/share) on revenue of $58.3 million compares with a $11.1 million loss (-$0.12/share) on revenue of $52.5 million a year ago. Both income and revenue figures beat analyst expectations; analysts were looking for a $0.13/share loss on revenue of $56.7 million.

Looking ahead, TiVo expects to lose $9-$12 million in Q4 on revenue of $58-$60 million; analysts had been expecting a loss of $14.1 million on revenue of $58.6 million. Monthly churn (cancellations and non-renewables) rose to 1.3% from 1% a year ago. Operating expenses increased to $40.2 million from $32.5 million. TiVo-Owned subscription gross additions were 69,000, vs. 101,000 last year. "We believe that this quarter was an important one in terms of capitalizing on the growth opportunities we have in front of us, both in our standalone business and in the newer areas of our business that are beginning to show positive results," CEO Tom Rogers said. "We believe that we have right pieces in place to move the business forward and have great confidence that we will," (full earnings call transcript later today).

TiVo said its much-anticipated deal with cable giant Comcast (CMCSA), which will allow Comcast subscribers to download TiVo software to their DVRs (full story), will begin shortly. "We are very excited by the emphasis that Comcast has placed on this product within its organization and their plans to aggressively market it... Further, we are pleased with Comcast's plans to promote and market the value of the TiVo experience, which will leverage many of their marketing assets including cross-channel TV," it said (press release). Earlier this week, TiVo announced NBC would become the first media company to buy its new proprietary viewer statistics that gives ad producers a better idea of exactly who's watching their ads and who's skipping them (full story).

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