TiVo Posts Loss, Raises Outlook

TiVo Inc., maker of a video recorder that can pause and replay live television programming, said Thursday that its fiscal second-quarter loss widened to $4.39 million. But shares rose after TiVo boosted its forecast for subscriber growth.

The loss was 7 cents a share in the quarter ended July 31, compared with a loss of $3.04 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier, when consumer electronics maker Sony Corp. bought a license to make TiVo video recorders. Revenue fell 24% to $26.7 million from $35 million.

Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo added 90,000 subscribers in the quarter. Most of them also subscribe to Hughes Electronics Corp.’s DirecTV satellite-TV service. DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, markets the TiVo recorders to its customers.

TiVo said it might add as many as 650,000 subscribers in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31. It previously had forecast no more than 600,000.

“This product and this category look incredibly strong going into the digital Christmas,” said Daniel Ernst, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw Inc. in New York.

TiVo added 56,000 subscribers last quarter through its partnership with El Segundo-based DirecTV. A “dramatic” increase in those subscriptions came in the last few weeks, TiVo President Martin Yudkovitz said.

DirecTV in July changed its strategy for marketing the TiVo service to focus on customers who already subscribe to DirecTV rather than potential customers, TiVo executives said.

The recent quarter’s loss was smaller than the average estimate of 13 cents a share from analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

TiVo shares rose 73 cents to $9.70 on Nasdaq. They rose to $10.99 in after-hours trading after the earnings announcement.