TiVo ‘Program Placement’ ads in the wild
Just shy of two weeks ago TiVo announced their new ad system, Program Placement. Well, it looks like it is live already. User greg_burns over at TiVoCommunity.com has posted photos of the screens.
As I said at the time of the announcement, it looks like TiVo has done it in a very unobtrusive manner. There are no extra button presses compared to the screens without an ad. You actually need to make more effort to view the promotion, button presses for keeping or deleting the program remain as before. So it doesn’t get in the way at all, which is TiVo’s way of doing things. I don’t have a problem with advertising when it is done well, like this.
Site Updates RSS
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.gizmolovers.com/Images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS
feed"){kind=small}
December 11th, 2006 at 01:08
looks better than anticipated.
Hey question, does Tivo still have a contract with DirecTV? I thought they did, but a friend of mine just signed up for DTV and their DVR is some generic DTV version w/o the Tivo logo/software
December 11th, 2006 at 03:39
I looked at the screenshots and it appears there are videos associated with the ads. I wonder if these commercials are eating up my hard drive space or do they stream?
December 11th, 2006 at 07:18
It is exactly as Greg describes. There will be those who get their panties in a bunch over it of course, there always are (heck…two comments into the thread and we’ve got someone bringing up the tired old “it’s MY space!”). However, in reality, this is the abosolute least intrusive form of advertising ever.
You want to see it? Click it.
You don’t want to see it? Don’t click it.
There. We’re done.
December 11th, 2006 at 12:02
All TiVos have a small partition reserved for TiVo’s use. That’s where the ad videos, and anything else TiVo sends to the box, are stored. The space is never accessible for user recordings, so it doesn’t change the recording capacity at all.
December 11th, 2006 at 12:03
The current partnership with DirecTV expires in 2010. However, DirecTV has already stopped producing and selling TiVo-based DVRs. They’re pushing their in-house DVR now. The partnership with TiVo allows them to continue to support existing DirecTiVo customers, but they’re no longer selling the systems. You can still find them from resellers like WeaKnees.com, but stocks are becoming depleted.
December 11th, 2006 at 12:52
so will that mean that come 2010, my parents DTV tivo will stop working? I’m hoping to switch to a DTV Tivo next year, but now it sounds like it may not be worth it
December 11th, 2006 at 12:54
I believe DirecTV will continue to provide data, but there may not be any more than that. Of course, they could always renew again - the agreement was set to expire in early 2007, but they renewed it for 3 more years.
December 11th, 2006 at 18:07
One may view the service agreement one has agreed to at http://www.tivo.com/5.11.2.asp and one may wish to pay particular attention to items 3.2 and 12.
I know MZ already knows this, this is just in reply to him to continue the thread. B-)
December 12th, 2006 at 01:07
I haven’t seen it yet but after reading the thread, I know I won’t mind it.
I’m different because I used to work in radio and I am used to commercials. Heck, I still listen to commercials to see how creative they are. Yes, I am sick.
I know TiVo is run by advertising, and it’s fine by me. As for the thread on the boards - yeesh. I spend as little time there as possible because the continual negativity is depressing.
December 12th, 2006 at 07:42
ok 12. is scary… Does that mean if I have a Recording at a time when tivo sends Data that their Data transmission wins?
December 12th, 2006 at 14:01
User requested recordings trump everything else.