Rovi grows revenue from IPG deals with cable MSOs, CE manufacturers

Top interactive program guide vendor Rovi Corp. (Nasdaq: ROVI) posted strong revenue growth from both cable operators and TV manufacturers deploying its guides, generating $196.5 million in revenue during the third quarter, an increase of nearly $60 million from this time last year.

Rovi, which has licensing deals with most major cable MSOs, including Comcast  (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR)and Cox Communications, generated $74.5 million in revenue from service providers, which was a gain of about $10 million from the third quarter of 2010. It supplies several IPGs such as its Total Guide, i-Guide and Passport, and also has licensing deals with operators that allow them to use its intellectual property to develop their own IPGs.

Rovi continues to post revenue gains from CE manufacturers that license its guides for use in connected TVs and other devices. It generated $87.6 million in revenue from CE manufacturers, up from $75.8 million that it saw during the third quarter of 2010.

Also worth noting from Rovi's third-quarter earnings report and conference call with analysts:

• Rovi counts about 92 million subscribers worldwide that are licensed to have one of its guides on set-tops, up from 87 million this time last year.
• The number of cable subscribers that have either its Passport or iGuide increased by 22 to 18 million subscribers.
• Rovi said it expects to grow revenue from licensing deals it has with cable MSOs to use its technology on guides for mobile and Web video products, citing deals it has with Comcast, Cox Communications, Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) and Canada's Rogers Communications (NYSE: RCI) and Videotron.

For more:
-  see Rovi's earnings release

Earnings Summary: Sizing up the cable industry in Q3 2011

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