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More Tivo Ad Changes

Articles / Commercial Set Top Box PVRs
Posted by JohnL on Jul 18, 2005 - 02:35 PM

Well, while running around over at PVRWire [1] and Engadget [2] I saw that the good ol' boys at TiVo have done a software upgrade:

The jury’s still out on TiVo’s plans to insert ads during fast forwarding, but they’ve come up with another NAB-friendly ad hook that rolled out today: instantly respond with your TiVo to certain advertisements. (Quote from Engadget Article) [3]

The PVRWire news article [4] on the new ad widget says that the software upgrade has been done on around one million boxes, only Series2 that arent DirecTV units. There is also a longer more in depth post on Yahoo.com [5] for your reading enjoyment.



rampy rant:--> *shrug* I don't really look at it as a bad thing. It's really part of the next step/evolution for TiVo to be an interactive platform. Think amazon.com meets sitcom.

I have a series 2 tivo currently in the rotation and will see if I was one of the "lucky" ones.

There's previously had this functionality where you'd give the thumbs up during certain commercials and then it would take you to another screen where you could request additional information. Unfortunately the turn around time was pretty pathetic... 6 months later I received my glossy print mailer about the new line of Chevrolet Corvettes. That didn't feel quite as interactive or immediate to me.

I see potential and value possible with something like this, but probably not in the form it'll take initially. All I have to say is if I get another Tivo software update and if it makes my interface any more sluggish than it already is i'm canceling my service and promoting the BeyondTV box [6] to the digital cable (currently recording two analog cable sources).

So in short, I'll wait and see and not give the knee jerk "OMG Tivo fux0ring with ads again" response and hope for the best.

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Links in this article
  [1] http://www.pvrwire.com/
  [2] http://www.engadget.com/
  [3] http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000257050944/
  [4] http://www.pvrwire.com/2005/07/18/tivo-upgrade-gets-you-in-touch-with-ads/
  [5] http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050718/tc_nm/tivo_dc
  [6] http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/?a=98