TiVo is continuing to roll out new advertising methods on its PVRs and the latest advert appears on the "Delete this recording?" option. This has now gone live as we can see pictured right (Via PVRBlog).I'm not too sure what to make of this; the adverts are not too intrusive and appear out of the way, while at the same time you are paying for the TiVo service so why should you have to see adverts.
With PVRs threatening the regular advertising model new innovative adverts that are not intrusive (unlike normal TV ads) are probably a good thing. However, in this case the money goes straight to TiVo and not the content producers, so while TiVo and the advertisers are happy, the content creators are left out.
1. There were much clearer photos posted at TiVoCommunity.com earlier: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4661519&&#post4661519
I don't get the "you pay for it so why are there ads" argument. You pay for magazines, newspapers, cable TV, etc - they all have ads. It is not an either/or situation. TiVo has a mixed business model - some revenue comes from subscriptions, some from ads. And some from other sources like licensing their patent holdings, selling demographic data, etc. If they eliminate any one source of revenue, they have to make it up somewhere else. No ads could mean even higher subscription fees.
Posted at 9:08PM on Dec 13th 2006 by MegaZone