RCN, Grande deployments drive TiVo subscriber growth

TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) added 117,000 subscribers during its fiscal third quarter, as RCN, Grande Communications and other cable operators deployed its high-end TiVo Premiere DVR.

The company, which counts about 2 million subscribers, including customers who buy standalone TiVo DVRs in retail outlets, is seeing new deployments from Suddenlink Communications, and DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) plans to begin marketing new TiVo set-tops to its subscribers next month. Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is also conducting a trial with TiVo.

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told analysts on the company's earnings call that Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) will begin deploying TiVo DVRs "very soon," and that the deals TiVo has signed with pay TV distributors worldwide could provide it with a potential reach of more than 10 million homes.

"We have just begun to scratch the surface of this potentially huge opportunity," Rogers said regarding TiVo's strategy of supplying operators with DVRs that allow them to deliver linear TV, video-on-demand and Web video content.  "TiVo is one of only a few companies that offers an advanced television solution, and it's become clear that outside a very small number of operators in the world who are willing to absorb the massive expense of trying to build an advanced television solution on their own, all other operators are going to need an outside third party to provide a cost-effective solution for them," he added.

For more:
- see TiVo earnings release
- here's the transcript from TiVo's earnings call

Earnings Summary: Sizing up the cable industry in Q3 2011

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