POP-Ups on TV??? (Ack!!!)
[from news.yahoo.com]
TiVo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers
Wed Nov 17, 7:55 AM ET
By Gina Piccalo
Times Staff Writer
When it debuted in 1999, TiVo revolutionized the TV experience
by wresting control of screen time from advertisers, allowing
viewers to record shows and skip commercials. TiVo's slogan said
it all: 'TV your way.'
Behind the scenes, though, TiVo was courting advertisers, selling
inroads to a universe most customers saw as commercial-free. The
result is a groundbreaking new business strategy, developed with
more than 30 of the nation's largest advertisers, that in key ways
circumvents the very technology that made TiVo famous.
By March, TiVo viewers will see 'billboards,' or small logos,
popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them,
offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a
viewer 'opts in' to the ad, their contact information will be
downloaded to that advertiser -- exclusively and by permission
only -- so even more direct marketing can take place.
[...]
'TiVo looked like it was going to be the weapon of mass
destruction of Madison Avenue,' says Robert Thompson, Syracuse
University professor of television and pop culture. 'However, we
knew that the [TV] spot ad would not go gently into the night, and
this is the next battle strategy.'
The shift underscores what industry observers have been saying
since TiVo started -- that TV advertising and programming must
change dramatically to survive.
These are anxious times for marketers, who are faced with
commercial-busting technology that's evolving faster than they can
keep up. Broadcast-ready cellphones, hyper-real video games,
interactive DVDs and the Internet give consumers the on-demand,
often commercial-free entertainment they crave.
[...]
For this reason, ad agency executives who initially ignored TiVo
and its digital video recorder technology, or DVR, are now
praising it as an industry savior.
[...]
Yet from its inception, TiVo engineered its system with
advertisers and networks in mind. While competitor ReplayTV
had allowed its subscribers to skip commercials entirely --
TiVo restricted its fast-forward capabilities so viewers could
still see the commercial, albeit eight times faster than intended.
[...]
'TiVo is dependent on a psychology,' says Neal Gabler, a senior
fellow at the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg and author of
'Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality.' 'It is not
just a technology. You don't want people to intrude in your life.
That's the whole point of it -- to give you control of that
mechanism.... I think they're going to find themselves losing
customers. I say this as a TiVo subscriber.'
To Syracuse University's Thompson, the concept of interactive
advertising interrupts the most relaxing aspect of watching TV.
'People seem to forget that what we've loved about television so
dearly is its abject passivity,' he says. 'That's why they call it
couch potato. TV was so great because it wasn't interactive.'
[...]
'Watching [an ad] is one thing,' TiVo loyalist Calogero says.
'Interacting with it is something that the consumer is going to
need a little more reassurance that their information isn't being
sold. I mean, TiVo knows how many times I rewinded to see Janet
Jackson's breast come up. How much more do they know about me?'
TiVo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers
Wed Nov 17, 7:55 AM ET
By Gina Piccalo
Times Staff Writer
When it debuted in 1999, TiVo revolutionized the TV experience
by wresting control of screen time from advertisers, allowing
viewers to record shows and skip commercials. TiVo's slogan said
it all: 'TV your way.'
Behind the scenes, though, TiVo was courting advertisers, selling
inroads to a universe most customers saw as commercial-free. The
result is a groundbreaking new business strategy, developed with
more than 30 of the nation's largest advertisers, that in key ways
circumvents the very technology that made TiVo famous.
By March, TiVo viewers will see 'billboards,' or small logos,
popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them,
offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a
viewer 'opts in' to the ad, their contact information will be
downloaded to that advertiser -- exclusively and by permission
only -- so even more direct marketing can take place.
[...]
'TiVo looked like it was going to be the weapon of mass
destruction of Madison Avenue,' says Robert Thompson, Syracuse
University professor of television and pop culture. 'However, we
knew that the [TV] spot ad would not go gently into the night, and
this is the next battle strategy.'
The shift underscores what industry observers have been saying
since TiVo started -- that TV advertising and programming must
change dramatically to survive.
These are anxious times for marketers, who are faced with
commercial-busting technology that's evolving faster than they can
keep up. Broadcast-ready cellphones, hyper-real video games,
interactive DVDs and the Internet give consumers the on-demand,
often commercial-free entertainment they crave.
[...]
For this reason, ad agency executives who initially ignored TiVo
and its digital video recorder technology, or DVR, are now
praising it as an industry savior.
[...]
Yet from its inception, TiVo engineered its system with
advertisers and networks in mind. While competitor ReplayTV
had allowed its subscribers to skip commercials entirely --
TiVo restricted its fast-forward capabilities so viewers could
still see the commercial, albeit eight times faster than intended.
[...]
'TiVo is dependent on a psychology,' says Neal Gabler, a senior
fellow at the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg and author of
'Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality.' 'It is not
just a technology. You don't want people to intrude in your life.
That's the whole point of it -- to give you control of that
mechanism.... I think they're going to find themselves losing
customers. I say this as a TiVo subscriber.'
To Syracuse University's Thompson, the concept of interactive
advertising interrupts the most relaxing aspect of watching TV.
'People seem to forget that what we've loved about television so
dearly is its abject passivity,' he says. 'That's why they call it
couch potato. TV was so great because it wasn't interactive.'
[...]
'Watching [an ad] is one thing,' TiVo loyalist Calogero says.
'Interacting with it is something that the consumer is going to
need a little more reassurance that their information isn't being
sold. I mean, TiVo knows how many times I rewinded to see Janet
Jackson's breast come up. How much more do they know about me?'
