February has been very, very good to TiVo. The DVR company started out the month with its most-watched moment ever when subscribers repeatedly reviewed the now infamous breast-exposure incident at the Super Bowl. (TiVo has more than 1 million subscribers.)
Then TiVo took a major step toward legitimizing itself with advertisers by striking a deal with Nielsen Media Research to measure TV viewing habits and DVR use. Data will be collected via an Opt-In panel on standalone TiVo units.
More recently, TiVo stock got a bit of a boost from news that Viacom would dump Blockbuster, the video-rental chain that analysts say is getting its lunch eaten by TiVo and other DVR offerings. TiVo also announced that it won a patent infringement suit brought against it in 2001 by Pause Technology LLC. U.S. District Judge Patti Saris of the District of Massachusetts ruled that TiVo did not infringe Pause's patent. TiVo said it would file a motion seeking Pause to pay all its attorney fees and costs.
