TiVo Loses 139k Subscribers vs. 125k in Previous Quarter
In the quarter ending April 30, 2009, TiVo’s total subscribers fell 139,000 to 3.196 million, approximately the same level they had in early 2005. That comprises an ever tinier share of the US DVR population which continues to expand. TiVo could have a valuable intellectual property portfolio, but its hardware selling business is over. For the most recent quarter, it only sold about 400 of its own TiVo DVRs a day.
TiVo subscribers July 2001- April 2009(millions, except for Net Additions which are thousands)
| TiVo-Owned | MSOs | Total | Net Additions | |
| Jul-01 | 0.182 | 0.047 | 0.229 | |
| Oct-01 | 0.206 | 0.074 | 0.280 | 51 |
| Jan-02 | 0.246 | 0.134 | 0.380 | 100 |
| Apr-02 | 0.270 | 0.152 | 0.422 | 42 |
| Jul-02 | 0.291 | 0.173 | 0.464 | 42 |
| Oct-02 | 0.321 | 0.189 | 0.510 | 46 |
| Jan-03 | 0.396 | 0.228 | 0.624 | 114 |
| Apr-03 | 0.433 | 0.270 | 0.703 | 79 |
| Jul-03 | 0.467 | 0.433 | 0.900 | 197 |
| Oct-03 | 0.526 | 0.476 | 1.002 | 102 |
| Jan-04 | 0.656 | 0.676 | 1.332 | 330 |
| Apr-04 | 0.724 | 0.872 | 1.596 | 264 |
| Jul-04 | 0.787 | 1.097 | 1.884 | 288 |
| Oct-04 | 0.890 | 1.413 | 2.303 | 419 |
| Jan-05 | 1.141 | 1.860 | 3.001 | 698 |
| Apr-05 | 1.213 | 2.107 | 3.320 | 319 |
| Jul-05 | 1.253 | 2.321 | 3.574 | 254 |
| Oct-05 | 1.308 | 2.700 | 4.008 | 434 |
| Jan-06 | 1.491 | 2.873 | 4.364 | 356 |
| Apr-06 | 1.542 | 2.875 | 4.417 | 53 |
| Jul-06 | 1.572 | 2.846 | 4.418 | 1 |
| Oct-06 | 1.625 | 2.809 | 4.434 | 16 |
| Jan-07 | 1.726 | 2.718 | 4.444 | 10 |
| Apr-07 | 1.727 | 2.615 | 4.342 | -102 |
| Jul-07 | 1.708 | 2.489 | 4.197 | -145 |
| Oct-07 | 1.712 | 2.355 | 4.067 | -130 |
| Jan-08 | 1.745 | 2.201 | 3.946 | -121 |
| Apr-08 | 1.728 | 2.073 | 3.801 | -145 |
| Jul-08 | 1.686 | 1.937 | 3.623 | -178 |
| Oct-08 | 1.658 | 1.802 | 3.460 | -163 |
| Jan-09 | 1.654 | 1.681 | 3.335 | -125 |
| Apr-09 | 1.624 | 1.572 | 3.196 | -139 |
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“MSOs” refer to subscriptions sold to consumers by MSOs/Broadcasters such as DIRECTV, Cablevision Mexico, Seven (Australia), and Comcast for which TiVo expects to incur little or no acquisition costs.
Tivo has the best DVR; I used to have them networked together on all the TV’s in our house. But I threw them all in a dumpster about three years ago. When we got HDTV’s, it just didn’t make sense to upgrade all four TIVO’s to HD Tivo’s when we were able to get DVR’s through the cable company (not to mention you can’t access any OnDemand shows, even free ones, with your Tivo DVR….then there’s that monthly subscription fee which is on par with a DVR rental, anyway).
It’s just a shame companies like Verizon use their own shoddy technology for DVR’s instead of Tivo’s far more sophisticated, user-friendly version.
got a TIVO lifetime and it works great, would get an HDTIVO but, it will not work w/ Comcast in my area and I have to pay a large fee to trade up them buy lifetime again…
Tivo also has started sneaking ads in everywhere, even popups when you fastforward…odd company, you buy their service to get around comercials and they find even more ways to pop in ads, even though it still has the best service.
Could the decreased numbers have anything to do with DirecTV not using the TiVo brand for a while? Now that TiVo and DirecTV are allegedly partnering again, I’m hoping to upgrade to an HDTV TiVo for my satellite TV service.
Nick, the split between TiVo and DirecTV explains pretty much the entire trend down for the “MSOs” column above. It has been the most important factor in the loss of TiVo subscribers (as it was in the early increase). I haven’t seen any recent news about the rejoined TiVo-DirecTV relationship, but I really haven’t been looking, so it could easily have escaped me.
TiVo-Owned subscribers have been falling for the last several years, and that is all about cable companies offering their own DVRs and nothing to do with DirecTV.