TiVo ‘Program Placement’ ads in the wild

Posted on Monday, December 11, 2006 by MegaZone

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.

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MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • chancelot

    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

  • deadoraliveinoh

    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?

  • stile99

    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.

  • megazone

    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.

  • megazone

    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.

  • chancelot

    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

  • megazone

    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.

  • stile99

    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-)

  • mattsledge

    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.

  • pabell

    ok 12. is scary… Does that mean if I have a Recording at a time when tivo sends Data that their Data transmission wins?

  • megazone

    User requested recordings trump everything else.