M+E Connections

Xperi continues to make strides in its media platform and connected car business segments, according to Jon Kirchner, the company’s CEO.

Within the media platform business, Xperi’s TiVo opearating system (OS) “value proposition continues to resonate with TV OEMs, which is underscored by our recently signed partnership with Skyworth, a top 10 global TV manufacturer to integrate TiVo OS into their 2024 TV lineup,” Kirchner told analysts June 28, on an earnings call for the company’s fourth quarter and 2023 fiscal year (ended Dec. 31).

That boosted the total number of TV OEMs integrating the TiVo OS to five, three of them top 10 global TV makers, he said.

Vestel is shipping smart TVs powered by TiVo into seven European countries, including the U.K. and Germany, with “plans to continue expanding into additional countries throughout the balance of 2024 under more than a dozen brands,” including JVC, Telefunken and Vestel, Kirchner told analysts.

Also, Sharp and U.K. retailer Argos “expect to have smart TVs powered by TiVo in retail stores this spring across Europe and the U.K., with Argos launching TVs powered by TiVo under their house brand, Bush,” Kirchner said.

He added: “Overall, it was a great quarter of execution for an independent media platform strategy and for driving our long-term growth prospects.”

Meanwhile, Xperi’s connected car business also saw “continued positive momentum” in Q4, he said. “The highlight was BMW’s rapid deployment of DTS AutoStage video service powered by TiVo across select new cars in production and certain late model vehicles already on the road through an over-the-air update,” he noted.

“BMW has also shared its intention to roll out AutoStage video service to their many brand-new vehicles in the future,” he said.

When Xperi reported Q42 2022 results a year ago, the company shared an estimate of the total dollar value of committed revenue for the connected car business, he pointed out.

At the end of 2023, even factoring in Xperi’s recent divestiture of its AutoSense business, the “current level of committed connected car business grew over 10 percent to greater than $300 million,” he told analysts.

Within Xperi’s pay TV business, video-over-broadband or IPTV solution continues to make steady progress, generating $60 million in revenue in 2023. This is helping to offset the secular decline from our core pay TV solutions, which continue to decline at expected rates consistent with the broader market.

Shifting to Xperi’s consumer electronics business, Kirchner said his company signed “several important multi-year Imax enhanced license agreements with major consumer electronics manufacturers,” including Hisense and XGMI.

Xperi also “executed a new DTS:X decoder agreement with a major U.S. retailer for their house brand of certain consumer electronics products,” he told analysts.

“We also signed a major renewal” with audio device maker Masimo, whose brands include Denon, Marantz, Definitive Technology and Polk Audio, he added.

Xperi “accomplished a lot over the past year, but we recognize that we have more work to do,” he went on to say.

For Q4, Xperi reported its overall revenue grew to $137.2 million from $135.5 million a year earlier.