March 2 (Bloomberg) -- TiVo Inc., the pioneer of digital video recorders, reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss after cutting jobs and marketing costs. The shares rose.

The net loss of $3.57 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a loss of $6.4 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier, Alviso, California-based TiVo said today in a statement. Sales fell 20 percent to $59.2 million in the period ended Jan. 31, missing the $63.5 million average of eight analysts’ estimates.

Subscribers declined to 3.34 million from 3.95 million a year earlier, TiVo said. The company is making its service available on cable and satellite television, and is allowing BlackBerry users to schedule recordings remotely. TiVo also joined with Netflix Inc. to allow subscribers of both services to watch films and TV shows over the Web on their sets.

“We reduced our workforce some and scaled back on our marketing expenditures,” Chief Executive Officer Tom Rogers said in an interview. “In this environment, spending beyond what the consumer will do is not a good use of our capital.”

TiVo gained 62 cents, or 9.4 percent, to $7.22 in late trading. It fell 49 cents to $6.60 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading and was little changed this year before today.

The company forecasts a first-quarter net loss of $6 million to $8 million on service and technology revenue of $47 million to $49 million. In last year’s first quarter, TiVo reported net income of $3.64 million, or 4 cents a share. Service and technology revenue totaled $54.9 million.

Current Climate

“Given the economic conditions out there, what we have been delivering is substantial growth,” Rogers said. “We are in a strong position given the current economic climate.”

The fourth-quarter loss was smaller than the 10-cent average shortfall estimated by nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey. At the end of the quarter, TiVo had $207 million in cash, equivalents and short-term investments, and no debt.

After winning a $105 million patent litigation judgment against EchoStar Corp., TiVo is seeking licensing agreements with cable and satellite TV services that offer digital video recorder technology, Rogers said at a Jan. 7 investor conference.

Customers of Netflix’s online rental service can watch 12,000 videos. TiVo subscribers can also buy or rent movies from Amazon.com Inc. and watch clips on Google Inc.’s YouTube.

Half of TiVo’s subscribers and 85 percent of new users equip their devices with broadband connections to watch video from the Internet on their TVs, Rogers said at the conference. The company is seeing “millions and millions” of downloads, Rogers said.

“There’s 56 million pieces of content not on TV or cable or satellite that our subscribers can access,” Rogers said today. “We’re positioning ourselves to provide anything you want, when you want it, right to your TV set.”

(TiVo began a conference call at 5 p.m. New York time. To listen, go to http://www.tivo.com/ir)

To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 2, 2009 17:26 EST