SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - TiVo Inc <TIVO.O>, the digital video recording company, posted a quarterly profit after a big litigation award against EchoStar, but said its revenue fell 15 percent.

TiVo said on Tuesday the net profit was $100.6 million, or 98 cents a share, in its fiscal third quarter ended October 31, versus a loss of $8.3 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding $105 million in litigation damages from EchoStar, the company lost a penny a share, according to Reuters Estimates, better than the average analyst estimate for a loss of 6 cents.

Total revenue dropped to $64.5 million from $75.5 million. Service and technology revenues totaled $51.7 million, down from $58.3 million a year ago.

TiVo has been struggling to find new areas of growth, boost new subscribers and fend off competition from generic DVRs offered by cable and satellite providers. The company has been locked in heated patent litigation with EchoStar Corp <SATS.O>, over the DVRs that satellite providers offer to customers.

Last week, TiVo said it would cut an unspecified number of jobs in a move to reduce expenses.

Overall, TiVo-owned subscriptions ended the quarter at roughly 1.7 million. Gross subscriber additions were 44,000, compared with 69,000 last year. The churn rate was 1.5 percent, up from 1.3 percent last year.

TiVo expects fourth-quarter service and technology revenue of $47 million to $49 million, and a net loss of $10 million to $12 million.

It has been working to set itself apart from generic DVR services by developing new add-on features. Last month, TiVo struck a deal with Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> to stream movies to TiVo subscribers from Netflix's catalog.

Alviso, California-based TiVo's stock closed down 22 cents, or 4.7 percent, at $4.43. The shares are off about 50 percent this year.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Publié le 25 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Reuters