• by Wayne Friedman , May 23, 2014

Against some a number of time-shifting TV competitors, TiVo has made some sizable improvements for its recent first-quarter earnings period.

TiVo posted net income of $8.1 million -- reversing a $10.3 million net loss in the first quarter of 2013.

The DVR-technology company also outperformed analysts’ revenue expectations, getting to $107.1 million -- a nearly 30% rise from the same period a year ago, when it was at $82.6 million. Service and technology revenue, which makes up the majority of TiVo's sales, rose 39% from a year ago to $86 million.

Subscriber levels also improved, climbing 23% year-over-year -- and up 9% from the previous quarter,  to 4.5 million -- the highest in its history. TiVo said all this was done with lower marketing expenses versus the year-ago time period.

TiVo now has deals with 15 worldwide pay TV providers, including Spain’s ONO, Sweden’s Com Hem and the UK’s Virgin Media; 12 pay TV providers are in the U.S. Some 21% subscribed to TiVo directly.

Tom Rogers, president/chief executive officer, told analysts in an earnings call: “We’re also only about 5% penetrated today of our U.S. cable relationships; many of those are fairly new relationships that are just getting started and so there is a lot of upside opportunity there.”

Rogers says TiVo serves 18 of the top 25 pay TV U.S. operators, including telco and satellite operators.

TiVo stock was up 3% in midday Friday trading to $12.29 .