TiVo, the personal video recorder (PVR) company, says that its subscriber base has grown by 64% in the space of twelve months and is hoping to attract up to 600,000 new subscribers in the next year.
Doubts have been raised about the potential of digital video recorders in the US (see
DVRs Fail To Live Up To The Hype) but TiVo is upbeat about the future having added 115,000 new customers during the fourth quarter. The company had a total of 624,000 subscribers as of January 31 2003.
TiVo said it expects to add between 450,000 and 600,000 customers during its current fiscal year, taking the number of subscribers over the one million mark. In addition, Samsung and Philips have announced that they will offer DirecTV receivers with TiVo later this year and Hughes Network Systems will market a HDTV receiver based on the technology.
The growing market for PVRs is shown by the fact that losses at TiVo narrowed from $41.6 million in 2001 to just $14.7 million last year. “Long term, we believe the real benefit has to come from the delivery of value-added services that consumers are willing to pay for,” said the firm’s chief executive Michael Ramsey.
