Media Money
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- Twilight, Inc., A Worldwide Craze
- Oprah to Leave Syndication in 2011
- Sony's E-Reader Shortage and the Digital Book Battle
- Salesforce.com Brings Facebook and Twitter's Social Capabilities to Businesses
- Sumner Redstone's Companies Face Off Yet Again
- Can YouTube Revolutionize Citizen Journalism?
- What MGM's Sale Could Say About Value of Content
- My Exclusive Interview With Bob Iger
- Activision Blizzard's "Modern Warfare 2" Sales Break Records
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab To Swedish Firm Falls Apart
- FDIC Fund Falls into The Red, Bair Urges Lending
- Buyers Look For Bargains At Luxury Condo Auction
- Weak Dollar Is Golden for Mining Companies
- Revised GDP Reading Puts Growth at 2.8%; Inflation Tame
- 10 Holiday Cocktail Recipes from Top Mixologists
- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- CA "More Profitable" After Saving Energy: CEO
- Why Are Options Piling into Dollar Tree?
- Novartis 'Cells' Its Flu Vaccine Technology
- Silicon Valley and Hollywood Now Fast Friends
- Markets Can Rise 5-10% in the Near-Term: Strategist
- Busch: The Debt-Interest Rate Paradox
- The Lloyd's Prayer, Leggo My Eggo, Plate Hate & Your Emails
- Buy These 'Competitively Positioned' Stocks: Portfolio Manager
- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- 'Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What'
- $42 Billion US Bond Auction Receives Strong Demand
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab Unit Falls Apart
- Consumer Confidence Improves but Still Shaky
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- FDIC Fund Falls into The Red, Bair Urges Lending
- Six Ways to Boost Your Income in a Big Way
- Buyers Look for Bargains at Luxury Condo Auction
- Ron Paul's Plan to Audit Fed a 'Serious Attack': Mishkin
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
Text Size 
Correspondent
It's been a busy 24 hours for TiVo [TIVO
Loading...
()
], which late Wednesday announced earnings AND filed a patent-infringement suit against Verizon [VZ
Loading...
()
] and AT&T [T
Loading...
()
]. TiVo defines the digital video recorder business-- the company name has become a verb, which says a lot. And now the company is taking on competitors that employ technology that it says violates three of its patents. Tivo's CEO Tom Rogers tells me they shown the telecom companies that they're willing to enter into a commercial relationship with them, and when they didn't see any interest in making a deal they decided to take the steps to protect their intellectual property. The suit against Verizon and AT&T is similar to the suit filed against Dish [DISH
Loading...
()
] and EchoStar [SATS
Loading...
()
] back in 2004. Judges have ruled several times in TiVo's favor but the defendants continue to appeal.
The company reported it swung to a $2.94 million second-quarter loss as the company lost 146,000 net subscribers, but this still exceeded analyst estimates. Sales dropped 12 percent to $57.4 million in the second quarter, but this again, beat Wall Street forecasts and is a slight sequential increase from the prior quarter. This quarter will continue to suffer from some economic pressures, Rogers saying he expects "tough sledding for a while in terms of consumer spending." But he's generally optimistic about consumer electronics holding up relatively well, and certainly it seems that through a downturn where people are staying home and watching more TV, it continues to be relevant.
Rogers points to some upcoming catalysts. DirecTV and Comcast are both rolling out their DVR service. The company is working with Best Buy to build TiVo's DVR capability into store brand TV sets, and Best Buy will use the relationship to build their own content-distribution platform. I'm intrigued by some of the more innovative capabilities TiVo is adding. It recently launched its "Stop Watch" local markets ratings service which is collecting TiVo subscriber viewing data, anonymously of course, in a handful of key markets. As we saw with the news that media and advertising giants are teaming up to launch a supplement to Nielsen, there's definitely demand here. It's also interest that TiVo is offering hundreds of *web* video channels to watch through its DVR. Can TiVo become the key bridge to Americans' gap between their TV and the web?
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes