Tivo's new Roamio DVR. Source: TiVo.
TiVo (TIVO +0.00%) isn't giving up. Not by a long shot.
Barely six months since the company introduced the TiVo Mini for broadcasting from a primary digital video recorder to another room or an iPad or iPhone, the company introduced Roamio, a DVR that allows users to stream and download your live TV and recorded content to your smartphones and tablets from anywhere.
"Until now, your shows have been locked up in your set top box at home," said Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo, in a press release. "Now with a TiVo Roamio DVR, whether it's a hotel in Denmark, the waiting room at the dentist office, when you're stuck at the airport, or at the gym, out-of-home streaming gives you the level of choice, control and freedom that consumers have come to expect from TiVo."
True enough. But does it matter? Every major network has a streaming app. So do most cable and satellite operators. There's also Aereo, the Rule Breaking start-up that's battling to bring live TV streaming to any device. By comparison, pushing saved content from a DVR seems like a wasted step.
Indeed, TiVo is selling the Roamio into a market that's changing fast. Mobile on-demand is so prevalent that ratings king Nielsen promises a solution for capturing streams to smartphones and tablets by September 2014.
So, is there any good news here? Sure. TiVo isn't sitting idle, which is important in a market that's become rapidly commoditized. The Roamio, if nothing else, is a reminder that the company isn't done innovating. TiVo is still the premium brand in the DVR market.
Financially, analysts see that amounting to 48% average annual earnings growth over the next five years when you include the impact of new license revenues born from settled litigation. To me, that means the TiVo stock story is improving.
Whether it's improving enough to deliver market-crushing returns to investors over the next five years is another matter entirely, but I'm finally warming to the idea. Do you agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below to let us know what you think.
