TiVo Tumbles as Questions Roll In

Clutter

Sony's entry into the so-called DVR market only further clutters the TiVo story. TiVo sells its recorders for around $200 and up, and licenses its technology to third parties, including DirecTV, Sony and Toshiba. TiVo makes much of its money selling monthly subscriptions to its automatic recording service.

But that model has already been threatened from multiple sides, most notably by direct broadcaster EchoStar (DISH Quote), which has started giving away non-TiVo DVRs to its satellite subscribers.

Another threat comes from TiVo's bottom line, which continues to ooze red despite a steadily growing subscriber list. In the latest quarter, TiVo lost $4.4 million on $17.4 million in sales, even as the subscriber rolls expanded by some 90,000.