TiVo reports 40% rise in MSO subs, but cord-cutting Roamio OTA sales drive revenue

In the pitched battle raging between incumbent pay-TV operators and insurgent OTT services, TiVo continues to profit quite nicely from playing Switzerland.

For its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, San Jose, Calif.-based TiVo reported revenue of $114 million, shattering investor guidance of around $89 million.

TiVo's subscriber base swelled to 5.5 million in the quarter, up 1.3 million for the year, with the DVR maker adding another 324,000 customers through MSO partnerships during the period.

But as TiVo continues to prosper by putting its set-tops and user interfaces into the customer homes of its pay-TV partners, its DVR targeted to broadband-only homes, the Roamio OTA, is fast becoming its main focus.

TiVo said this week that assets acquired from bankrupt OTT service Aereo last month will be used to bolster the Roamio OTA product, which combines free over-the-air broadcast TV with SVOD platforms and other OTT services.

For its part, TiVo is billing the OTA device as a product very much in line with the needs of its MSO partners.

"Operators are saying we have to figure out a way for our broadband-only customers to relate to video," CEO Tom Rogers told the New York Post. "And they're thinking our OTA [over-the-air] devices could be an interesting way to do that."

Last week, TiVo announced a deal to provide the Roamio OTA to Frontier Communications for deployment in broadband-only homes.

For more:
- visit this TiVo investor relations page
- read this New York Post story
- read this Bloomberg story

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Related links:
Frontier to enable cord cutters, market TiVo's Roamio OTA
Aereo auctions off most of remaining assets to TiVo, nets only $2M
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