CES: TiVo Expects DirecTV HD DVR This Year

Company aims to get back on 'positive subscriber trajectory' in 2011

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/7/2011 2:20:56 PM

Las Vegas - More than a year behind schedule, the TiVo-based HD digital video recorder for DirecTV will launch sometime in 2011 -- a development the DVR company is hoping will help it stop the tide of subscriber losses.The development of the DirecTV box, which runs on a Thomson hardware platform, has "taken longer than we expected for a variety of reasons," said Naveen Chopra, TiVo senior vice president of corporate development and strategy.

TiVo has been steadily losing customers over the past three years. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, 2010, the company had 2.27 million subscribers, down from 2.74 million a year earlier.

The company expects the distribution deals with DirecTV, as well as RCN, Suddenlink Communications, Virgin Media in the U.K. and other operators to start to show meaningful growth in 2011, according to Chopra. TiVo also has an agreement with Cox Communications, which is supporting retail DVRs with its VOD service.

Click here for the full story at Multichannel.com