TiVo records its first profit: 1 cent a share

TiVo Inc. posted its first profit Wednesday as revenue increased.

For the quarter that ended April 30, the pioneer of digital video recorders earned $835,000, or a penny a share, compared with a loss of $10.7 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to $60.4 million, with service revenue up 15% to $54.2 million.

Analysts on average expected a loss of 2 cents a share on sales of $58.4 million, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo said it expected to post a loss in the current quarter in the range of $5 million to $8 million.

Subscribers declined 1.7% to 4.34 million as the number of TiVo customers signed up through the DirecTV satellite service declined.

Chief Executive Tom Rogers increased subscription fees and cut the rebates on equipment purchases to reduce losses. New subscribers from Comcast Corp. starting in August will begin to replace the lost DirecTV users, he said.

“They seem to be reining in costs,” said Todd Mitchell, an analyst with Kaufman Bros. in New York. “It’s a solid quarter financially.” The decline in DirecTV customers “was higher than expected,” Mitchell said.

In addition, TiVo has raised prices, with subscribers paying an average of $13 a month compared with $10 a month early last year, he said.

Shares of TiVo rose 25 cents, or 4.1%, to $6.36.