TiVo loves Ads

Filed in archive PVR on November 30, 2006

TiVo has gone to the Dark Side, and is now offering a "product placement service" that will allow an advertiser to select a show and offer a screen full of content links before me and you, the viewers of these recordings, choose to save or delete it.

Great! If I wanted ads, I wouldn't pay for a service to give me what I thought was the opportunity to zap past them. John Murrell over at Good Morning Silicon Valley wrote about this, and one commenter on his post said it best:

There are many programs and movies that I record to watch later when I can delete the ads. Do they really have to show me the exact same ad over and over again? Do they have to insult my intelligence? Bother my neighbors with overly loud commercials? Ads pay for the programs I watch, but lately I've been more careful to avoid spending money on products where the ads are insulting. If Tivo is going to show me an ad when I choose not to watch ads, I just won't buy a Tivo machine. Simple as that.

My sentiments EXACTLY!