TiVo Tacks on 418K Subs Through MSO Partners

TiVo’s MSO business stayed hot in the company’s third fiscal quarter with 418,000 net adds, pushing its MVPD-partnership category beyond 5.51 million subs.

TiVo, which is expanding to pay TV operators in emerging markets via its recent acquisition of middleware vendor Cubiware, said its MSO partnership business in the quarter experienced its strongest growth in 10 years.

While TiVo has seen the bulk of its MSO-oriented growth come from international partners, the company said its business with North  American MVPDs grew 44% across more than 15 mid-sized operators. Digitalsmiths, TiVo’s search and recommendation and analytics unit that counts Charter, Time Warner Cable and Dish Network as customers, also posted double-digit growth, TiVo said. 

“We’re gaining about a million subs every nine months,” TiVo president and CEO Tom  Rogers said in an interview. He said MSO-related revenues in Q3 grew 60% year-on-year, and 47% on a sequential basis. 

Amid the recent launch of the 4K-capable, ad-skipping TiVo Bolt, the company also added 11,000 TiVo-owned subs, expanding that total to 952,000.

Amid the recent launch of the 4K-capable, ad-skipping TiVo Bolt DVR, the company also added 11,000 TiVo-owned subs, expanding that total to 952,000.  Rogers noted that Q3 only included a week to ten days of Bolt sales.

With the MSO and retail categories factored in, TiVo added 429,000 subs in Q3, for a grand total of 6.46 million. 

With both categories factored in, TiVo added 429,000 subs, for a grand total of 6.46 million, up 26% versus the year-ago period. 

On the financial end, TiVo said Q3 service and software and technology revenues hit a record $102.8 million, up 17% versus the year-ago quarter, and near the top of its expected range of $100 million to $103 million.

GAAP Net Income was $5.3 million.  Non-GAAP net Income grew 39%, to $9.9 million, a figure that excluded $1.9 million relating to amortization & earn-outs from Cubiware, $1.9 million of interest expense on the 2021 convertible notes, and $0.9 million loss on the repurchase of 2016 convertible notes, all net of tax. 

"This was a strong quarter of execution and growth,” Rogers, who is stepping down from that role to become non-executive chairman in February 2016, said in a statement. He added that “the turnaround in the TiVo-Owned business continues as we launched the innovative TiVo BOLT and gross additions were up 44% year-over-year, our ninth straight quarter of double-digit growth.”