TiVo Subscriber Base Passes 3 Million

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

February 18, 2005, 12:31 PM

Digital video recorder service TiVo reported Friday that it had passed the 3 million customer mark at the end of January, adding 251,000 TiVo-only customers and 447,000 DirecTV customers.

"Last year, we launched an aggressive growth plan that included increasing our subscription acquisition spending to grow our base, strengthen our market position, and fuel our recurring revenue model," said Mike Ramsay, TiVo's Chairman and CEO. "We accomplished our goal of doubling our sub base to over 3 million subscriptions."

TiVo has come under increasing pressure in recent months to show results and assure its investors that it could survive without DirecTV. At CES 2005, DirecTV showed off its own DVR, causing speculation that the partnership may be coming to an end. On top of that, TiVo CEO Mike Ramsay and President Marty Yudkovitz both announced their resignation within weeks of each other in January.

To make matters worse, TiVo users have reported numerous glitches within a recent software upgrade made to the service's software.

Despite TiVo's optimism, Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox doesn't expect the situation to improve.

"According to Jupiter Research forecasts, satellite-based DVRs have the greatest installed base, with cable-based DVR expected to snatch the lead in a few years. While the market consolidates around cable- and satellite-based DVR, standalone unit install base will decline steadily over the next five years," Wilcox told BetaNews.