OK, so in fiscal 2005 they more than doubled their subscriber base to over 3 million total subscribers and they’re on path for profitability in fiscal 2006. F05 was all about grabbing subscribers as fast as possible, F06 will be able sustainable growth – spending less on acquisition to turn a profit. TiVo also is now free of all long term debt in securities, which puts them in a good position. They had positive cash flow in operations in Q4. In F05 they added 1.7 million net new subscribers – DTV grew from 1.2 million to 1.9 million, and TiVo from 485K to 1.1million. In Q4 they added 698k net new – 447k DTV, 251K TiVo.
For Q1 they anticipate 265-300k net new, 200-225k DTV and 65-75k TiVo. For fiscal 06 they expect to make 155-165mil from service and technology, 37.4-38mil in Q1. They expect a net loss for F06 of 10-25mil for the year, with 8-10mil in Q1 and moving to profitability in Q4. TiVo is looking to be the value leader and not the price leader. They intend to keep expanding their Intellectual Property (they now have over 70 patents) as well as the feature set of the TiVo service, while keeping the subscription pricing fixed at current levels. In the long term they may offer premium services at an additional cost, but Mike said 2006 is “all about $12.95 a month”.
They talked up the Tahiiti effort as bringing more value to the service this year, and highlighted three main thrusts:
- Support, through TiVoToGo, for multiple portable media devices.
- a TiVo branded experience on the PC (Ed.Note: *THIS* has me very curious, but no details were presented.)
- Broadband content delivery
Additionally they said additional DVD recording and HD platforms will be available in fiscal 06.
