Xperi’s bid to make TiVo Stream 4K a dominant connected TV platform is moving along, but seemingly at a slow pace.
Xperi, which closed on its $3 billion purchase of TiVo six months ago, said a segment that subsumed the consumer products portion of TiVo’s business, the so-called “consumer experience category,” was up 2% in the third quarter to $49 million, with sales of the new $50 TiVo Stream 4K device credited for the uptick.
In addition to direct sales, TiVo is now selling the streaming dongle, which is powered by an operator tier version of Google’s Android TV OS, via Walmart and Amazon, as well as through TPG Capital-owned cable operators RCN, Grande and Wave.
Xperi wouldn’t break out specific sales numbers. And when asked by equity analysts during their Q3 earnings call last week for an update on when we might see the TiVo Stream 4K platform surface in smart TVs—which would be a game changer for the platform—Xperi execs remained vague regarding the multiple “phase” evolution of the OTT device ecosytem.
Look for smart TV migration to happen no sooner than the “back half” of 2021, they said.
“I would say we're having … good productive discussions on not only the technical issues of porting the code stack into the embedded space, but also just talking about how we can basically drive a platform that looks a little bit different in terms of the overall ecosystem and what's out there currently for for TV manufacturers,” Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner told analysts.
Comcast Deal Worth $50 Million Annually?
Xperi conducted its Q3 call on the same day that it announced a settlement to its long-running patent dispute with Comcast.
On the call, one analyst noted that the inclusion of Comcast IP licensing coin increased baseline revenue for Xperia’s intellectual property business from $300 million annually to $350 million. And Kirchner didn’t dispute the math that the deal is worth around $50 million annually.
Editor’s note: The whole four year dispute probably cost TiVo more to litigate.
