TiVo used this week’s Cable Congress event in Amsterdam to break out an new milestone – it has surpassed 2.5 million subscribers in Europe, thanks in large part to rollouts by Virgin Media in the U.K., Com Hem in Sweden, and Ono in Spain.
Broken down further, TiVo said its now covers nearly half of all subs at Virgin Media, which is now part of Liberty Global, and a third of ONO subscribers.
While that number provides another indicator that TiVo’s seeing solid momentum across the pond with tier one MSOs, it also spotlights the challenges it continues to face in the U.S., where it’s primarily working with tier 2/3 cable operators.
TiVo ended its fiscal fourth quarter with 4.2 million total subs after adding a record 313,000 subs via pay-TV partnerships during the period. TiVo’s last reported grand total comprised 966,000 TiVo-owned subs and 3.2 million coming from partners. Given the sub number shared today, that means fewer than 700,000 TiVo subs are coming way of partnerships with U.S.-based cable operators such as Suddenlink Communications, Mediacom Communications, and Atlantic Broadband, among others. TiVo also sells service in Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, and Taiwan (hat tip: @Swanni).
TiVo’s relationship with Charter Communications is in a holding pattern as the MSO develops its own cloud-based user interface.
Comcast and TiVo have a deal under which the MSO is integrating its VOD service with TiVo devices sold at retail, with all Comcast markets set to complete that work by June 30. That retail footprint support could grow if Comcast is successful in acquiring Time Warner Cable. Cox and TiVo are working on a similar retail-focused arrangement.
Although TiVo’s revenue-generating capabilities among top U.S. operators has been limited, it stands to improve in that area following its recent acquisition of search and recommendations firm Digitalsmiths, which counts TWC among its customers. With that deal factored in, TiVo has business relationships with 18 of the top 25 operators.
“We’ve got more to talk about with everybody and we’re in business now with most [major MSOs],” TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said in a recent interview (subscription required).
