TiVO at 4.2 Million Subscriptions, Eyes HD Transition

TiVo issued its financial report for its most recent quarter. Some highlights:

TiVO recently launched its HD DVR box for the mass market and is expecting a gradual transition

there was a net loss of $17.7 million, which included a combined inventory write-down and inventory purchase commitment charge of $11.2 million, as compared to TiVo’s net loss guidance of $5 to $8 million that didn’t contemplate the inventory related write-down.
TiVo’s net loss per share was $0.18. The inventory-related charge primarily relates to long-lead time dual-tuner Series2 standard definition DVR inventory.
TiVo-Owned subscription gross additions for the second quarter were 41,000, compared to 74,000 gross additions for the year-ago period. The company said gross subscription additions were impacted by the pace at which retailers moved to a high definition sales focus.
Overall, TiVo-Owned subscriptions totaled 1.71 million, up 136,000 on an annual basis compared to the year ago-period.
As expected, TiVo reported a net decline in DIRECTV TiVo subscriptions during the period as DIRECTV is no longer deploying new TiVo boxes.
Cumulative total subscriptions as of July 31, 2007 were 4.2 million.
The monthly churn rate was 1.2% compared to 1.1% in the prior quarter.
Comcast plans to commence its TiVo rollout shortly, which will continue rolling out throughout the fall in Comcast’s New England Division including metro Boston, Southeast Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Comcast has also agreed to fund significant additional development work to bring the TiVo service to other Comcast platforms, including Scientific Atlanta set top boxes.