Note that TiVo’s major MSO partners in Europe, Virgin Media and ONO, handle their own advertising sales and thus will not count toward that ten million subscriber target. Nor does it include the “TiVo Design” Insignia Connected TV’s sold by Best Buy, at least not at this time. Maitra did point out, however, that TiVo’s recent deal to bring their platform to Pace hardware does include an advertising component. So that deal may open up new MSO markets for TiVo.

In the meantime TiVo does still sell advertising, of course. It seems it must be somewhat successful for customers as Maitra stated that over 50% of TiVo’s ad buyers are repeat customers. TiVo users are probably familiar with these ads. They may be seen on the screen that pops up at the end of a recording, at the bottom of a program group in the Now Playing List, or on the main ‘TiVo Central’ menu screen. TiVo also has had other ad options, such as static ‘billboard’ ads that overlay a commercial for the same product if the commercial is being fast forwarded. TiVo seems to have a working formula for advertisers, now they just need to bring the numbers up to create a more attractive market.

“We used to hear all kinds of things from advertisers and agencies about pricing,” Maitra said. “I feel that we have gotten it all right except that they just want more homes. Now we have at least satisfied the trajectory and growth requirements. We have priced the advertising for the number of homes that TiVo is in and it’s working, but none wanted to invest in something that they didn’t have confidence would be a growth platform.”

CED also spoke with Thomas McMillin, Chief Operating Office for Suddenlink, one of the MSOs currently distributing TiVo DVRs directly to their customers. McMillin had some good news, and some bad news. First, the good news; Suddenlink serves 1.37 million homes and TiVo is available to customers in 70% of their markets, and it should be in 90% of their markets by year end. But he bad news is they currently have only 20,000 TiVo units deployed, in 10,000 homes. Yes, clearly some homes have multiple units.

Suddenlink is taking a “conversative” approach to marketing TiVo to their customers, positioning it as a premium upgrade from their standard HD DVR. Suddenlink charges a $15 monthly fee for TiVo and requires that customers have broadband with a minimum speed of 10Mbps. All told they have HD DVRs, TiVo included, in 47.7% of their customers’ homes. Doing some back-of-the-envelope math that means 653,490 homes with HD DVRs, 643,490 of which are not TiVo households.

The main reason for the soft sell on TiVo seems to be their existing stock of non-TiVo HD DVRs. They don’t want to be “stuck with” them if they were to more aggressively push TiVo. That does leave a ray of sunshine though. Hardware has a finite usable life, and that stock of non-TiVo HD DVRs will eventually be exhausted and begin to wear out and need replacing. If TiVo can position themselves as that replacement they’d have a slow but steady market by attrition.

Via Consumer Electronics Daily.

No other show on television comes close to that comedy in adding 18- to 49-year-old viewers who record shows and watch them later. So far this season, new episodes of “Modern Family” have grown from a first-day average of 7.1 million viewers in that age group to 10.2 million, counting seven days’ worth of added viewing — a gain of 3.1 million each week, according to Nielsen Research.
…
Total popularity does not perfectly correlate with profitability, however, since the networks all agree to sell ad time based on a metric called “C3.” It measures the average viewing of the commercials within a show within three days of the first broadcast, so it excludes people who wait to watch Wednesday’s “Modern Family” until Sunday or Monday.

And the networks are pushing to start selling ads based on a seven day window, which would improve ratings – and therefore pricing – even more.

But in a Letter to the Editor published on Tuesday, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers says “Not so fast”:

Because TiVo can measure viewership for any commercial, not just programs, we know that the majority of the commercials on “Modern Family” are not viewed when watched in recorded mode. Advertisers are being overcharged by paying commercial rates based on the program ratings and not commercial ratings. This is anything but the boon for advertiser-supported network television that the article suggests.

He’s clearly making a bit of a stealth pitch for TiVo’s Stop||Watch ratings service, which provides the kind of ratings granularity that tell advertisers if their ads are being watched or skipped. But he has a solid point nonetheless. It doesn’t matter if someone watches the program if they’re skipping the ads, not when it comes to selling ad time.

The only thing we know for sure is that the television market is changing, and I don’t think anyone has figured out the new magic formula yet. Content needs to be paid for somehow or it doesn’t get made. That’s been through advertising for many years, but is that sustainable? Just like the new reality for films includes licensing to cable networks, streaming services, home video, etc., I think TV content will need to rely increasingly on secondary revenue sources and not the initial broadcast.

This data supports TiVo’s targeted advertising products. As DVR usage, including ad-skipping, expands, content providers must find a new way to monetize the content. And they need to know which approaches are working, which ads are getting viewed, to optimize their efforts. Like it or not, the content needs to get paid for somehow. And TiVo seeks to address that need with their advanced advertising platforms. The broader the data pool, the more accurate they can be.

This site was a TiVo Affiliate in the past, but during the hiatus my Commission Junction account (TiVo’s program is run through CJ) was closed down for inactivity. As part of the re-launch I opened a new CJ account and began re-applying to affiliate programs – including TiVo’s.

After a week with my application pending I decided to ping TiVo to see what was up, and they told me that they’re not approving any new affiliate applications – because they’re closing down the entire affiliate program in three weeks. I asked for further clarification, if they were replacing it, etc., and was told “We don’t have plans to reopen the affiliate program at this time.”

TiVo will continue working with ad networks and exchanges for their online advertising needs. But this is the end of direct affiliate referrals.

Shame, first we lost the TiVo Rewards program – that was shut down way back on April 28, 2008. And the promised ‘new program’ never materialized. Now we’re losing the affiliate program as well.

Not that I think we’re entitled to anything – I covered that in my thoughts on the end of the TiVo Rewards program way back when. TiVo is under no obligation to offer referral bounties, etc. But I can’t say it isn’t nice to be able to get a cut from recommending a product I use and enjoy. And, while I wouldn’t recommend a product I didn’t feel I could get behind, for any amount of money (I regularly receive offers to accept paid content for the site – I always turn them down, and I won’t become an affiliate for any product I don’t support), affiliate programs are one way small sites like this one can pay for themselves, and maybe make a little money.

Since I have a ‘day job’, I don’t run the site with a primary goal to make money, so I don’t spend a lot of time optimizing the SEO, tweaking my ad settings, looking for the highest returning ad programs, etc. But there are costs to running a site and it is nice to cover those, and anything extra is a bonus to use for little things – like helping to pay for my upcoming wedding and honeymoon. However, other bloggers do make their primary income from their blogs, and affiliate programs are often a key part of that. So I’m sorry to see TiVo dropping out. Ad space is finite (if you’re smart), so you have to run with what pays. And, in three weeks, TiVo no longer will be.

Following the Superbowl, TiVo released their usual summary of ad viewership. The graph to the right (click for larger version) uses TiVo Stop||Watch data to track viewership on a second-by-second basis. When viewers rewind a section and repeat it this is additive and increases the total viewership. Note that most of the spikes during the first half came during advertisements, while in the second half most of the spikes came during the game itself.

TiVo, of course, put out a full press release with all of the details. Former top ad the E-Trade talking baby was dethroned, not even placing in the top ten this year, while GoDaddy.com jumped to the top spot for the first time.

The top ten rated commercials of this year’s game were:

1. GoDaddy.com: “Enhanced?”
2. Bud Light: “Summer to Winter”
3. Careerbuilder.com: “It May Be Time”
4. Doritos: “Crystal Ball”
5. Transformers: “Revenge of the Fallen”
6. Monster.com: “Moose Head”
7. Bud Light: “Man Thrown out the Window”
8. Pepsi: “MacGruber/Pepsuber”
9. Dennys: “Thugs”
10. Coke Zero: “Mr Polamalu”

See the full release for more.

In this context, I am urging marketers and TV executives to adopt The TiVo Imperative. For marketers, commit a small percentage of your TV advertising budgets, and for TV programmers, commit a small percentage of your promotional budgets with TiVo to engage DVR-users and educate them to want to click their remote to watch advertising and to test-view new TV series. The multiple options and research capabilities that have been developed and implemented by TiVo make it the most viable option available for marketers and networks to begin addressing the imminent crisis facing the industry.

And for TiVo owners there was an interesting piece quoting TiVo CEO Tom Rogers:

Rogers believes “there are many ways to catch the viewer’s eye to entice them to click into an ad. There are many ways to engage the fast forwarding viewer: with tags, with full screen billboards, with entry off the user interface, with insertions when a viewer is asked if he wants to delete a show when he is finished watching… any of which can lead to incredibly effective advertising. There are many more forms of inventory to come, including making product placement immediately actionable right off the remote control.”

I’m especially interested in that last sentence:There are many more forms of inventory to come, including making product placement immediately actionable right off the remote control. That sounds like what I’ve been saying TiVo should do for a long time, most recently when they announced the ‘Product Purchase’ feature with Amazon. I think it should be something the user can enable and disable at will, but I think it would be interesting to be able to get more information on products that appear in a program and purchase them if wanted. The example usually cited is to be able to buy outfits worn by the characters – but I’m a typical geek. I own several nigh-identical pair of black Timberland hiking boots, several pair of nigh-identical black denim pants, and an assortment of T-shits and polo shirts. A GQ model I’m not.

Personally I’d be more interested in the music I hear in shows. I love music, and I often hear songs in shows and ads and wish it was easier to track down the artist and check out more. Even when shows include the “Music in this episode by” tag at the end I admit I rarely manage to jot down the info and then track it down later. But I’m a sucker for impulse buying, they’d definitely get me with a link to iTunes or maybe the Amazon music store to download. (CD’s are just an inefficient transport mechanism to get the music into iTunes for me.)

If you’re interested in this kind of thing, read the entire article.

Six of the seven new network series that premiered in October drew 50% or more of their audience on a timeshifted basis. The highest rated premier, ABC’s Life on Mars, had 52% timeshifted viewing. NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy had 54%, CBS’s Eleventh Hour and NBC’s Kath & Kim both 51%, and CBS’s The Ex List and CW’s Stylista both had 50%. And the news isn’t good for advertisers, as five of the seven premiers had 60% of more of their ads fast-forwarded or skipped, Life On Mars had a 65% skip rate, showing that ratings alone may not be the best measure of ad viewing. Though My Own Worst Enemy and Kath & Kim had the highest skip rates with 67% – not good for NBC.

Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement, said, “We would expect to see this level of Timeshifting for an older show with an established fan base, and a new series premier to get most of its viewing Live. The fact that these new series got upwards of 50% of their viewing on a Timeshifted basis indicates that viewers are growing accustomed to recording programs and watching when they want – thereby increasing a program’s total viewership. However, Timeshifting audiences also have the ability to skip commercials, which impacts the efficacy of the ads and the economics of the program, and can have long term effects on how networks evaluate their success going forward.”

There is a lot more data and analysis in the press release, check it out.

I’m sure this move, putting ads on the pause screen, will upset some users. I mean, there are always those who dislike all forms of advertising, so any ads upset that group. But beyond the hardcore ad haters, I think a number of more moderate users are getting a little annoyed by ‘ad creep’ as advertising finds its way into more and more areas of the TiVo interface.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. I understand TiVo needing to boost revenue, and I’m in favor of TiVo becoming profitable and sticking around. I also understand advertisers looking for new ways to reach DVR users who are increasingly skipping commercials – myself included. At the same time I’m a bit concerned about TiVo diluting their famed UI with ads, but for now I have some faith that they’re not going to tart things up like a lot of cable boxes which look like a bad MySpace page. (I was going to go with GeoCities, but most of my readers probably don’t remember them.)

I don’t really use pause very much, so I doubt this will impact me personally (and not at all right now as I mainly use my S3), but when I due pause a program it is generally to get a better look at something on the screen. So as long as I can clear the overlay this probably won’t bother me. Of course, the rest of the time I pause it is so I can leave the room, so I don’t care what’s on screen anyway. I actually mind this implementation less than some of the existing advertising.

The ads inserted into groups in the Now Playing List still grate on me. I don’t see them a lot since I don’t tend to let recordings build up to create a folder in the first place, but there is something about the NPL that is my area, while the rest of the UI isn’t as personal. It is emotional and not logical, but whenever I go into a folder and see an ad lurking at the bottom I just kind of roll my eyes and make a point of not clicking on it.

I don’t think anything is going to stop the addition of ads to the TiVo interface, it is too important to TiVo’s business and survival. So I’m not going to rail against it too hard, I pick my battles and I don’t see this as a winnable one. And I still feel that TiVo is leaps and bounds better than other DVRs, so I don’t believe there is a viable alternative. I’d sooner live with these ads than use another DVR, and I’m sure TiVo knows that as well. Still, at times I wonder if I may be a boiling frog.

What do you think about this new ad addition?

The press release:

TiVo Expands Ad Solutions Portfolio, Enables Advertisers to Reach Viewers When Programming Is Paused

ALVISO, Calif., Dec 09, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ –

- Mercedes-Benz and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment are First Advertisers to Begin Using New ‘Pause Menu’ Feature -

ALVISO, Calif., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the launch of Pause Menu, the latest addition to its suite of interactive ad solutions designed to grab the attention of fast-forwarding viewers who consume TV differently and often do not watch ads the way they are traditionally delivered.

Using the TiVo Pause Menu, advertisers can, for the first time, reach audiences with targeted product messages displayed within the pause screen of a Live or Timeshifted program. The new feature can be particularly impactful for traditional TV and non-television advertisers that have product integration or a significant media investment in a specific TV show. Alternatively, they can opt to cast a wider net by targeting entire genres or keywords within a program description.

The feature provides an original solution for advertisers seeking to capture the fast-forwarding viewer. It’s another example of how TiVo offers unique and different solutions for advertisers looking to get viewers to watch advertisements who avoid traditional spots.

The new Pause Menu also provides broadband connected TiVo subscribers with a direct link to TiVo’s Swivel Search feature, allowing subscribers to easily find program information, related shows and downloads when they click on the “pause” button on the TiVo remote.

Esteemed brands already have plans to launch Pause Menu campaigns. Mercedes-Benz USA, one of the first to sign on, plans to use the feature to help promote its new GLK SUV early next year by targeting football viewers. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is taking advantage of Pause Menu for their Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who DVD and Blu-ray release on December 9.

David Sandford, Vice President Marketing and Product Management for TiVo Inc. said, “With the number of DVR homes on the rise, TV advertisers are facing a very serious commercial avoidance issue that must be addressed now. The launch of Pause Menu moves us another step closer to achieving our goal of providing a comprehensive suite of interactive advertising solutions designed to help the TV industry reach viewers in a DVR world.”

Sandford continued, “It’s important to note that our interactive ad solutions have been so well received because they are non-intrusive and actually enhance the viewing experience. For example, our research tells us that linking the Pause Menu to our popular Swivel Search feature gets very positive viewer reaction. This creates value for viewers and effectiveness for advertisers — a win, win situation.”

Promotions on the Pause Menu will be displayed as a single line of text and another line will link the viewer directly to TiVo’s Universal Swivel Search, allowing TiVo users to explore content without missing a second of their favorite show and creating a seamless, integrated experience.

The new feature is available today to all TiVo® Series2 subscribers.

About TiVo Inc.

Founded in 1997, TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Sold through leading consumer electronic retailers and our website, TiVo has developed a brand which resonates boldly with consumers as providing a superior television experience. Through agreements with leading satellite and cable providers, TiVo also integrates its DVR service features into the set-top boxes of mass distributors. TiVo’s DVR functionality and ease of use, with such features as Season Pass™ recordings and WishList® searches and TiVo KidZone, have elevated its popularity among consumers and have created a whole new way for viewers to watch television. With a continued investment in its patented technologies, TiVo is revolutionizing the way consumers watch and access home entertainment. Rapidly becoming the focal point of the digital living room, TiVo’s DVR is at the center of experiencing new forms of content on the TV, such as broadband delivered video, music and photos. With innovative features, such as TiVoToGo™ transfers and online scheduling, TiVo is expanding the notion of consumers experiencing “TiVo, TV your way.®” The TiVo® service is also at the forefront of providing innovative marketing solutions for the television industry, including a unique platform for advertisers and audience research measurement.

TiVo, ‘TiVo, TV your way.’, Season Pass, WishList, TiVoToGo, Stop||Watch, Power||Watch, and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2008 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE TiVo, Inc.

http://www.tivo.com

According to Nielsen Media research’s numbers, these are the five most time-shifted shows for the week of September 22-28.

Those are some pretty significant increases over the number of people who watched the episodes ‘live’. 28% of homes now have DVRs, up from 20% last fall. While new DVR users are reportedly not as fanatic about recording their programs, the sheer increase in numbers is having a growing impact on network programming. And the biggest impact is from viewers in their 30s, a prime audience. While the seven day numbers look good, networks still sell advertising based on lower three day ratings numbers. The industry needs to accept that DVRs are not only hear to stay, but rapidly consuming the market, and largely in the most valuable demographics, so advertising sales will need to adapt. It is really up to the networks to collectively take a stand and force change on the ad industry.

I found the report interesting reading just from the data on the numbers of actual product placements. I was surprised by just how many placements there are. For example, in the first half of 2008 American Idol alone had 4,636 product placements, followed by Biggest Loser with 4,364. Coca-Cola was the top brand, with 2,990 placements. The market was bombarded with 204,919 product placements in just the first half of 2008. So if you thought there were a lot of products slipped into your shows, you’re right.

Not surprisingly, reality programing has the most product placements as its easier to work products in than it is in a scripted show. But with the deluge of reality shows clogging up the airwaves, there may be too many programs to go around. Audiences can only take so much, and with more shows on the air advertisers may not get as much of a concentration of viewers.

Personally I abhor most reality shows and do everything I can not to watch them. I guess I few shows I watch, like Iron Chef America, technically fall into the category though. But even avoiding the big reality shows, I’ve noticed a growing amount of product placement. One of the shows I enjoyed last season, The Big Bang Theory, had a lot of product placement worked into the program. Characters made very obvious use of Dell laptops, and one character works at The Cheesecake Factory, as is mentioned repeatedly. This season of Eureka is partly sponsored by Degree antiperspirant, which includes fairly intrusive, annoying product placement in the program itself. It is so clumsily handled that it’d be better if the characters just stopped and pitched the product for 30 seconds. It is annoying enough to make me want to never use the product.

I wonder if the increasing ‘in your face’ aspect of product placements is a symptom of the same saturation effect. It reminds me very much of web-based advertising, and how ads became increasingly aggressive with pop-ups, pop-unders, sound, animation, etc. Desperately trying to attract consumers, while in reality it was increasingly driving them away. Unfortunately I don’t expect an ad-blocker for product placements any time soon.

Spotted through Silicon Valley Insider.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.

From the release it just sounds like they’re releasing the first results from the Power||Watch service, which they started putting together last November. Power||Watch consists of a panel of 20,000 TiVo users who have opted in to having personal information gathered. This allows TiVo to associate the viewing data from the TiVo with the known demographic data from the household to provide more valuable data than the anonymous information provided by their Stop||Watch service.

May 2008 Power||Watch(TM) Ratings Service Highlights

– The Power||Watch(TM) ratings service research indicated that, contrary to popular perception, subscribers who have used the TiVo(R) service for more than three years, the “early adopters,” are no more likely to avoid commercials than those who have only been TiVo subscribers for one to three years. Essentially, there is no meaningful difference in the amount of Timeshifted viewing or fast-forwarding between these subscriber groups.

– All demographic segments Timeshift and fast-forward commercials at a high rate, although the specific commercials viewers choose to skip varies. For example, there are significant variances in the amount of time households with children under 12 spent watching commercials for certain product categories during Timeshifted viewing compared to households with adults over 50.

The full press release has more data and more of a breakdown of the initial Power||Watch results.

On March 31, 2008, Comcast accepted the initial version of the TiVo Interactive Advertising Management System for future deployment on Comcast platforms. This acceptance occurred by the mutually agreed deadline of March 31, 2008.

While most of the focus has been on TiVo’s OCAP/Tru2Way software, another part of their partnership is advertising across Comcast’s step top boxes.

“How do you make a TiVo-proof commercial? Everybody wants to know the answer,” says Todd Juenger, vp, general manager of research and measurement at TiVo, which introduced its Stop Watch measurement tool that gives clients access to second-by-second ratings of commercials and programming. Instead of a traditional focus group, the system pools information from the viewing habits of TiVo’s 4 million subscribers.

TiVo studies have shown that the context in which a commercial is surrounded plays a critical role in whether it will be skipped. “It’s like a restaurant,” he says. “Even if you have the world’s finest restaurant, if you are in a crappy location, you’re still not going to get the customers you would get in a good location.”

In some dayparts, direct response does well, in others automotive ads. “It comes back to the environment and the target audience,” he stresses. “It can sometimes be more important than how creative the ad is to begin with. If they are in the market for a home gym, they’ll watch that commercial, even if it’s not what is traditionally thought of as a creative ad.”

I thought the article was interesting overall, as a look into an industry (advertising) I’m only peripherally aware of.

The research also shows that moving ad money away from TV can help mitigate the impact of DVRs. The brands that spend 20% of more of their media budgets outside of TV showed no significant drop in DVR households. The study also provided some insight into DVR users’ habits:

Overall, IRI panelists watched 42% of the programming on CBS time-shifted, compared to only 10% on the Food Network and 18% on Lifetime. While 34% of programming originally airing on Fridays was time-shifted, only 15% of Sunday shows were.

As network executives have suspected, the study showed people were far less likely to fast-forward through network promos than ads– indicating that creative appeal does make a difference. More than 60% of viewers, for example, watched network promos in the first pod position at normal speed vs. fewer than 45% who watched other ads.

There is some more interesting information in the article.

TiVo Inc.(NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that Omnicom Media Group has purchased a subscription to TiVo’s Stop||Watch™ ratings service. The Group’s full service media companies, OMD, PHD, and Prometheus Media Services, will use the comprehensive, second-by-second DVR audience behavioral data to help their clients better understand Live and Timeshifted audience viewing habits and the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

The press release certainly not coincidentally timed to lead into TiVo’s quarterly financial conference call this afternoon. See the full release for more.

In the video he mentions how this is risky because someone could accidentally click on it. Or maybe a roommate or a visiting friend could click on it as a joke. Or someone else in the household, like a child, could click on it. The thing is, this is not hypothetical!

Last month I posted about TiVoCast content getting sponsorships, and reader Jenny left a comment on that post about this very issue.

Beware the Gold Star ads! I am still steaming about this… My son had just finished watching a recorded episode of Little House on the Prairie when a gold star advertisement for Cosmopolitan magazine appeared asking to click here to find out Men’s top 10 sexy secrets. Of course, being curious, he clicked on it and was given two options: No, I’m sexy enough, and Yes, I want to know the secrets (or something like that). He clicked Yes and a screen came up saying thank you for subscribing to the magazine!

When I called TiVo, they were kind enough to turn off the gold stars on my system, but could not do anything about the purchase. I am currently dealing with Cosmopolitan about this.

This is just going way too far. I had no idea that TiVo would abuse my credit card information in this way. Let alone the fact that my nine year old was subjected to this adult-themed advertising after a children’s show!

Now, it seems that Jenny may have been in error about the credit card issue, since Dave’s video indicates that you’re invoiced via snail mail. (Or perhaps that has changed in the past month.) But that doesn’t make this any less of an issue. As I said at the time, and have said repeatedly in the past, TiVo needs to put some kind of PIN/Password security on all such features. Period.

Anything that causes you to purchase or subscribe to any goods or services should require a PIN entry for confirmation by default. And it should be set to something by default, even 00000. Personally, I think this should also be included on anything that causes any personal information to be released to any third parties, even without a purchase. Allow owners to disable the PIN entry if they wish to do so, via the configuration menus. But then it is a personal choice to do so, and the user is given the option.

I am all for commerce in the TiVo interface. I’d love to see more of it. You know those History Channel shows with “Now you can buy the DVD of this program” ads? Give me the option to buy it right there from the TiVo UI. Commercials for products? Let me order them online right from the couch. Give the QVC addicts the ability to purchase right from the remote. Go for it, I’m game. But offer some security to the process. Personally I’m not too concerned – I’m single, I live alone, and my friends aren’t jerks who think it is funny to order things in my name. So I’d probably turn the PIN entry off. But I still think it should be there as an option because I know this is an issue for a number of people. I have many TiVo-owning friends with small children. And children love to play with remotes, etc. My mother likes to tell the story of how I managed to dial a local telephone operator when I was quite young. No big deal – except I managed to dial an operator in Hawaii, and we lived in New York. Kids push buttons. That’s some kind of law of nature. And even if they’re old enough to know what they’re doing parents might want to control what the kids, or babysitter, etc, can do from the TiVo – without resorting to KidZone.

As for the targeting, I agree with Jenny. I’m far, far from being any kind of prude, but an ad for Cosmo on Little House? Swing and a miss! The ads should probably be ‘rated’ and paired with TV shows of the same, or higher, rating. There is another discussion at TiVoCommunity about the content of TiVo’s ads. In that case one user was upset by the TiVo Central advertisement for the free Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Show download from Amazon Unbox. The objection is to TiVo advertising ‘prurient’ content. Personally I think that’s way over-stated, but to each his own. The ad itself doesn’t contain prurient content, and at least with Unbox you can’t order without the PIN. (And yes, for the record I have downloaded it. Though I only watched the first bit to see just what it was. I haven’t had time to watch the rest yet.)

TiVo needs to improve their ad targeting, but even more important is giving TiVo owners the ability to restrict the ability to order things from the TiVo interface.

As you can see in Matt’s screen shots, there is a Gold Star item at the end of the recording group. In his case he has a group for the Winter X Games with three recordings, but there is a fourth item for ’1 Pro. 1 Joe. One epic journey’ which links to a promotional Showcase for an upcoming program for The Taupo 1000. It appears to work in much the same was as Program Placement ads.

Matt is bothered by the new ads, and I think understandably so. I haven’t encountered them yet myself. I’ve been keeping up with my recordings lately, so I don’t have many groups in my NPL, and I suspect it is only triggered when the group fits the current ads seeking placement. However, seeing his screen shots I have a negative reaction to them.

I haven’t had a problem with the other advertising methods, and I’ve even been critical of those who dislike them, so that may seem odd. But it is really an emotional reaction. Ads in other areas of the TiVo UI never bothered me. But somehow the Now Playing List feels different. That’s my area, my recordings. Sure, there are TiVo Suggestions, but even those are based off my viewing habits – and they can be disabled. So seeing the ad in a program group feels a little invasive, in intrusion into personal space.

Intellectually, I realize it probably isn’t that much different from the existing ads. It looks easily ignored, just like the TiVo Central Gold Star promotion. It is at the end of the group, and the gold star makes it easy to tell it isn’t a recording. One thing I’m wondering, that you can’t tell from the image, is how it interacts with group navigation. If I hit ‘Advance’ or ‘Page Down’ to go to the end of the group – does it stop on the last recording, or is the ad selected? I’d hope for the former, but suspect the latter. And what if you view the Program Details screen for a recording and use Chan Up/Down to navigate between the recordings – can you go ‘down’ to the ad, or does it stop on the last recording? I suspect it does stop on the last recording, since the ad isn’t really an item in the group, but rather a shortcut/link to the Showcase.

I accept that advertising is part of the TiVo Service, and important to the future of the company. Subscriptions alone won’t support the company, they need multiple sources of revenue. I understand that and I think the value from the service is more than worth having a few ads. But I’d still rather not see them in the NPL.

What do you think?

TiVo issued a press release touting the new partnership:

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today that Symantec, the maker of Norton security software, has signed on as the first advertiser to sponsor Interactive Advertising during CNET’s TiVoCast program. As a sponsor, Symantec will utilize TiVo’s Interactive Tags and Program Placements for the Norton product line within CNET’s popular weekly 15-minute TiVoCast program, which provides viewers with the latest news and reviews in technology and consumer electronics.

See the full release for more details.

Rather than fighting the behavior, advertisers and networks should embrace the DVR as a unique platform with its own advantages, Greene says.

DVRs, for example, offer more user interactivity with TVs. Advertisers also should be willing to experiment with different ad formats, such as overlay ads similar to those adopted by YouTube, to take advantage of interactivity and reduce the ability to skip ads.

“Product placement also offers a practical alternative to traditional ads. However, advertisers must carefully integrate their products into programs and ensure that product placement is logical and does not alienate consumers,” the report says.

The market shift is inevitable. It is time to evolve or die.

TiVo Inc.(NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that it has signed Carat to a comprehensive audience research agreement. Carat, one of the largest media buying shops and among the fastest growing marketing communications groups worldwide, will utilize TiVo’s unique research services to help its clients better understand the most urgent issue facing advertisers today – the impact of DVRs on viewing behavior and especially fast-forwarding of commercials. In addition to access to DVR viewing behavior, TiVo and Carat will also work together to educate Carat clients on ways to reach the fast forwarding viewer, leveraging TiVo ad solutions.

You can tell TiVo’s financial call is this afternoon – they’ve made new announcements yesterday and today. The subscription gives Carat access to both Stop||Watch and Power||Watch programs. DVR utilization is going nowhere but up and advertisers are getting serious about addressing that market. They have to evolve or die, and that’s good news for TiVo as they’re a leader in this space.

“The idea was” if you could somehow take a generic [set-top] box and download the TiVo software over the wire, if you could order it from your cable company like HBO” it would be an incredible product,” [TiVo CEO Tom] Rogers said.

However, according to Rogers, the development was “much easier said than done.”

“It was an enormous piece of rocket science to work with hardware, chips we don’t control,” he said.

There is something interesting in the article from a revenue standpoint as well:

TiVo hopes that through the cable partners it can drive additional interactive advertising revenue. As part of the deal with Comcast, Rogers said, “in every TiVo home, we have the right to sell the interactive overlay on every commercial, on every network” That’s an incredibly powerful franchise we can develop… so we can look to diversify our business model.”

Check out the full article for more.

Media planning and buying company Starcom USA and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for DVRs, today announced Starcom is the first media agency to partner with the firm on Power||Watch™ Consumer Panel — a new offering from TiVo which provides advertisers access to demographic and viewing behavior data for 20,000 households who volunteer to take part in a consumer panel.

“With 20,000 households, the Power||Watch Consumer Panel will provide a new level of detail on DVR viewing behavior among any given brand’s target segments that will significantly enhance the approach advertisers take in creating and buying advertising on television,” said Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, Audience Research & Measurement, TiVo.

There is more in the full press release.