Here’s a summary of TiVo’s latest financial numbers. More detailed information can be found here (TiVo press release).

Technology Update

• During the quarter ending July 31st, TiVo released the TiVo HD.
• Comcast services is progressing. Comcast has agreed to fund development work to bring TiVo to additional set top boxes including Scientific Atlantic boxes.
• Comcast has said that they, “we will commence the TiVo rollout process shortly, which will continue rolling out throughout the fall in Comcast’s New England Division including metro Boston, Southeast Massachusetts and New Hampshire”.
• During the quarter DIRECTV announced a deal with TiVo to develop a software upgrade to enhance the user experience for DIRECTV customers who have DIRECTV DVRs with TiVo service.

Financial Numbers

• Second quarter 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.
• Net loss per share was $0.18.
• Service and technology revenues increased 7% to $56.5 million ($52.8 million for the same period last year).
• Service revenues were $53.4 million (compared to the year ago quarter when service revenues were $49.4 million).
• Technology revenues were $3.1 million, which was lower than expected due to timing of development work related primarily to DIRECTV and international opportunities

Subscriptions

• TiVo-Owned subscription gross additions for the second quarter were 41,000, compared to 74,000 gross additions for the year-ago period
• Overall, TiVo-Owned subscriptions totaled 1.71 million, up 136,000 on an annual basis compared to the year ago-period
• 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
• Monthly churn rate was 1.2% compared to 1.1% in the prior quarter

Obviously the financial numbers aren’t that positive. That being said, I still think TiVo’s future is looking bright. The Comcast and Cox partnerships should produce a lot of new TiVo subscribers. Once this occurs, TiVo will be able to straighten out its financial situation.

Don’t forget that tomorrow TiVo is going to release financial results for the second quarter ended July 31, 2007. I’m plan on listing to the conference call so stay tuned for an update on.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about the Comcast & Cox partnerships. I know there are a lot of people out there who are anxious to get TiVo on their cable company DVR.

Todd Spangler has posted an interesting analysis of the catch-22 that TiVo has found itself in. In his article, Todd has come up with a couple of ways that TiVo can survive this dilema. Read on for more information.

Ever since the start of this blog I’ve been saying that TiVo needs to partner with a cable company. Hopefully the upcoming Comcast & Cox partnerships will help bolster TiVo’s position as the number one DVR on the market.

Good news for all the Comcast users who are waiting for a Comcast DVR with TiVo software…

NEW YORK (AP) — TiVo Inc., maker of digital video recording software, said Thursday cable operator Comcast Corp. approved TiVo software for use on its DVRs, moving the companies’ oft-delayed planned cooperation closer to implementation.

In 2005, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, said it would offer customers the option of downloading TiVo software onto Comcast DVRs for an extra fee. Comcast now expects to test the service in Boston starting in August.

TiVo previously sold its software with its own DVRs, but competition from cable companies, who also offer DVRs with third-party software, has forced the company to alter its business.

TiVo shares added 16 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $5.86 in Friday morning trading. Comcast shares rose 24 cents to $28.29.

Questions or comments about this story should be directed to the Financial News desk of The Associated Press at 212-621-7190.

Today, TiVo published their annual report which contains at least two pieces of information that I found interesting. According to the report, TiVo earned $16.2 million in revenue directly from the Comcast TiVo partnership. The report also states that the Comcast and Cox roll outs are expected to launch in FY08.

………. Development and deployment of the TiVo service software solution for Comcast and Cox are expected to launch in initial markets during fiscal year 2008. During fiscal year 2008, we expect to recognize technology revenue associated with the development work from our Comcast and Cox agreements.

Service and Technology Revenues. Our service and technology revenues, which include subscription fees received for the TiVo service, advertising fees, and engineering and licensing fees, increased $47.1 million or 28% during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007 compared to the prior fiscal year. This increase was primarily due to an increase in our cumulative TiVo-Owned subscription installed base of approximately 235,000 net TiVo-Owned subscriptions during the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007, coupled with $16.2 million in technology revenues from licensing and engineering work recognized from our Comcast Agreement.

The report contains a lot of other useful information which I just don’t have time to go over right now. Feel free to read the report for yourself if you’re into that kind of thing. I may try and summarize the report a little more tomorrow but for now I just need to get to bed since I have to get up early….

This analyst thinks so…..

JMP Securities LLC analyst Ingrid Ebeling gave TiVo a “Market Outperform” rating and an $8 price target.

She is optimistic on the company’s deal with Comcast to serve as a software-only provider of the TiVo interface that resides on cable operators’ digital video recorders. The TiVo-Comcast deal is set to debut in select markets in late spring or early summer.

I think that the Comcast partnership is a big deal. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see other cable companies partner up with TiVo once Comcast starts to roll out TiVo software on their DVRs. I know from personal experience how horrible the default set top box software is. TiVo is going to make a lot of Comcast customers extremely happy. Once other cable companies see this, they’re going to want to jump on the bandwagon and  provide TiVo sofware as alternative.

What do you think about TiVo’s prospects?  Do you think that the Comcast partnership is going to help TiVo form a partnership with other cable companies?

Apparently this is the week of TiVo videos. In this video, Jim Denney (TiVo Vice President, Product Marketing) talks about a couple of things including the recent Rhapsody partnership as well as the TiVo Comcast partnership.

Taken from Technology Evangelist, spotted on TiVoLovers.

CNET has posted a wonderful video on their website where they give a rather complete demo of the upcoming Comcast/TiVo DVR. I’m really impressed with how this DVR appears to work. I especially like how you can tell if a show is broadcast in HD directly from the “Find Program” menu.

If you’re a Comcast customer, are you planing on upgrading to the TiVo DVR option once it is available in your area?

Spotted on Gizmodo.

My good buddy Dave Zatz just put up a post about the Comcast TiVo DVR. Dave was one of several bloggers who was lucky enough to go to CES and cover the show directly from the floor of the event. Dave’s posts turned me onto a number of interesting things about the Comcast TiVo DVR.
Here’s what I think is most interesting:

…deployment is slated to begin this Spring

So here’s how it works… You let Comcast know you want to upgrade your DVR to TiVo, they flip a switch, and your current Motorola box (6412 or 3412) downloads the software. Reboot, and voilà you have TiVo

So here’s how it works… You let Comcast know you want to upgrade your DVR to TiVo, they flip a switch, and your current Motorola box (6412 or 3412) downloads the software. Reboot, and voilà you have TiVo

The new TiVo software is written entirely in Java and runs on TV Navigator middleware, a precursor/subset of OCAP

….the new color-coded grid guide looks great and includes picture-in-picture (PIP can be paused!), plus the software includes advanced search functionality not yet available on the stand alone TiVo models. Further, both search and Wishlist scan OnDemand programming which will be quite useful.

….networking is not active in the initial release: No Home Media Options (as in no sharing photos & music from computer, no multi-room viewing) and no Internet-based services such as TiVoCast or Yahoo Weather

Check out Dave’s post (which includes screenshots) if you are interested in finding out more about the Comcast TiVo partnership. It really is a great read for anybody who is interested in this partnership.