NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Revolutionizing the television-watching experience has always been the goal of TiVo (TIVO) - Get Report, which reports fourth-quarter earning results Tuesday after the closing bell. But shareholders have waited a long time to profit from that transformation. With competitive threats larger than ever, concerns about the stock's valuation have grown, and shares have dropped 17% over the past 12 months.

The Alviso, Calif.-based company specializes in software and technology for advanced television services. Its products can be found in  set-top boxes, tablets, smart phones, and a host of other supported consumer electronics. At one point, the company had what industry experts called "game-changing technology."

No one is thinking that anymore. Not only has TiVo's business been hurt by on-demand services from cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Report  and Time Warner Cable (TWX)  that allow consumers the option to prerecord their shows and watch them later on their TV or mobile devices, consumers also have alternatives from video streaming services like Netflix (NFLX) - Get Report  and Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report  Prime, whose pay-per-view and subscription choices that make Tivo products much less compelling than they were 10 years ago.

Factor in the additional options provided by streaming services like HBOGo and Hulu, and TiVo's advanced DVR devices can be seen by many viewers as more of a hassle than a value-add. And all that ignores the possibility of future competition fromApple (AAPL) - Get Report, which has shown TV ambitions of its own. So what will be left for TiVo? It seems the market has already spoken. Take a look at the chart.


TIVO 1 Year Total Returns (Daily) data by YCharts

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TiVo shares closed Friday at $11.18, up 1.36%. But not only have the shares fallen 5.57% year-to-date, trailing the broader averages, the stock is also down more than 20% in the past six months. And in the past twelve months and three years, investors are in the hole by more than 18% and almost 2%, respectively. Will a change begin Tuesday? Not likely.

For the quarter that ended in January, analysts will be looking for earnings of 4 cents per share on revenue of $89 million. For the full year, earnings are projected to be 24 cents per share, while revenue if projected to grow almost 15% to $349.7 million.

And even if TiVo does meet its targets, the shares still trade at a premium, with a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 55 -- more than twice the average P/E of 21 for stocks in the S&P 500I:GSPC. According to CNN Money, the company's full-year 2014 earnings are projected to decline by close to 90% year-over-year. And the competitors mentioned above are only getting started.

In other words, TiVo investors who have waited to make money on this stock would be better served to sell their shares now and move on to a company with better prospects -- not to mention a stock that is more reasonably priced.

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held AAPL.