TiVo from AdZapper to Advertiser's New Best Friend

Thomas Hawk writes "A lot of noise has been made lately regarding TiVo's transformation from an ad zapper to Madison Avenue's new darling. In their first podcast ever, TiVo explains how they hope to redefine advertising in the age of the DVR through a customer centered approach. I'm not sure you are going to see TiVo changing their slogan to "we'll leave a light on for you," anytime soon, but with DVR penetration hitting mainstream how will their new initiatives change your TV viewing experience?"

some personal thoughts about advertising

[yagu]

I am one of the broadband-connected Tivo owners and counter to Tivo's Kent's thesis, I don't prefer to watch the long ads Tivo stocks. I long ago abandoned those as mostly uninteresting and targetless (i.e., of ten video ads, rarely would even one be close to interesting for me).

An interesting note in the article: TiVo owners tend to fast forward about 70% of the ads when viewing pre-recorded content. That's about right in my experience, but why?

I use the 30 second skip, and it helps get past the real annoyances in a show, which is usually the commercials. But I've found that there are some well done commercials and those are the 30% that I watch. If they're not insultingly stupid, and are cleverly written (not hard to do -- spring for the writers), I watch. Some I watch every time I see them (Caveman FedEx commercial anybody?).

I think Tivo and others may be missing something here, people watching TV do appreciate a "breather" every once in a while, and if the commercial breaks are filled with quality pseudo entertainment, people will watch it. And vendors will get market share.

If Tivo and others really wanted to get ahead of the curve I'd suggest targeted commercial breaks, i.e., instead of the broad spectrum network advertising during commercial breaks, overlay them with targeted and well-crafted shorts designed to catch the eye of that tivo's owner tastes. I think this is easily done, and would bet the 70% "skip" factor for commercial breaks would drop significantly. I don't mind targeted advertising, it can still be annoying but it's more likely to show me something I can use and would be interested in buying.

On the other hand, the notion of interactivity in the TV landscape so far has consistently been beat down as intrusive and annoying to TV viewers. I have seen all of the extra features Tivo has added (mostly third party) in the last couple of years, and they're mostly fluff, add little value, and some of the harder sell "features" are downright annoying. I'd be interested to see the usage metrics for these new "interactive" improvements.

I still think when people settle in to watch TV, they're there to watch, not participate.

ReplayTV

[Sentryp]

This is why I own a Replay DVR...

Tivo's business model?

[TubeSteak]

Lets get it out in the open: Tivo's original business model is/was shiat.

They're migrating to advertising $$$ to prop things up.

You'd think Tivo wouldn't be so desperate since they got that big deal with Comcast(?).

It's a shame where Tivo has headed.

Couldn't expect it to last

[misleb]

Seriously, who thought that a company the size of TiVo could take on the entire broadcast entertainment industry? Eventually they had to play ball. They only needed to keep the "ad zapping" functionality long enough to get their foot in the door with consumers. Now they have a Brand and can start to screw customers and still manage to turn a profit because they're backed by the Big Boys.

-matthew

Re:Unsettling..

[kfg]

You mean to say they want to profit even more?

You misspelled "someday."

KFG

Choice...

[Kr3m3Puff]

All I ask for is choice. Advertising in the US has subsidized or made free our entertainment. If Tivo goes the same direction, where their service is free or greatly reduced, I am all for it. But if I want to pay a premium price to avoid advertising, I should have that option as well.

Both satellite and cable have had it screwed up for a long time, advertisements and I am paying for the cable. At least stations like HBO and Showtime are still ad free, but the thing that TiVo should enable is a choice.

Tenuous relationship with my TV

[wcrowe]

It's simple. The only reason I watch any TV now is because I have a TiVO as well as the cable company's DVR. If I'm forced to watch ads, I think the DVR's, as well as my cable connection, will go the way of my dot-matrix printers. There's nothing worth sitting through those six-minute soul-sucking commercial breaks for.

They'll just run ads *during* the shows

[Anonymous Coward]

How often are the "answers" on a show like Jeopardy actually some specific consumer product - like every other answer now? The content of the show is advertising. Programming, once merely a conveyance for advertising, has *become* the advertising.

Also, more and more often I see an item in Dave's Top Ten List that references some consumer product, usually one which is currently being promoted. No such thing as bad publicity!

Re:does tivo matter to adverts?

[PhilHibbs]

if you want to watch something "live" the you have to see them anyway. I would think this is how most people with tivo use their TVs; with tivo just as a video-recorder

My friends that have a TiVo never watch live TV.

Re:does tivo matter to adverts?

[dcsmith]

Not just no, but hell no. If we're going to watch TV in 'near live' time, we'll check our wishlists, check the todo list or watch a few minutes of that interesting but not riveting movie we have recorded. About 20 minutes in, we start watching.

Re:does tivo matter to adverts?

[morgan_greywolf]

if you want to watch something "live" the you have to see them anyway. I would think this is how most people with tivo use their TVs; with tivo just as a video-recorder if there is 2 things on at the same time which they want to watch or if they are going to be out... it might seem like a lot of people will never see ads but I would bet that they do

Sure they do. People watch lots of "live" TV; however, I think it's getting less and less common. As people are all very busy, they still want to watch shows, they just want to watch them when they want to and have time to.

I think about my own situation: I've been considering building a MythTV DVR for a little while now. One of the reasons is that I don't always get a chance to watch what I want because of all the things I do -- I have a full-time 40+ hr/week job, I have a very part-time side business that I work on occasionally, I volunteer for a 501(c)(3) non-profit that I'm involved with -- which usually ties up at least 3 nights of my week, and I'm writing a book.

I don't have time to watch TV "live" all the time, and as a result, I end up missing some of my favorite shows....

I think this is how most people are using it -- to time shift their favorite shows so that they can watch them when they have time -- and I don't think I'm unique at all in not having very much time on my hands to watch TV.

A better idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

Rediscover the book. Commercial-free, self-paced, endless supply of quality content, cheaper than cable, educational, and the country will be better off for it.

Hey - this sounds great!

[i am kman]

Ok, we're TiVo addicts (through DirecTV) and I'd LOVE to use it more actively.

We (kids + parents) almost NEVER watch live TV anymore and, in fact, usually deliberately wait until the show has started for 15-20 minutes so we can fast-forward through ALL of the commercials. For us, the 30% watching commercials is really a lot closer to 5% (max).

That said, my kids watch music videos and we'd definitely order CDs or have the songs automatically emailed to us if that was an option. That would probably double (or triple) our music purchases.

For things like the FedEx caveman commercial, why not let TiVo email us a link to the video on the FedEx website - that's great for me and great for FedEx - AND I'd probably forward it to me friends. Wow!

I often see commercials that I'd like more info on, but I forget about them 30 seconds later. If that was linked into an email where I could get more info on my own time, then GREAT!! I'd LOVE it. Particularly if it took 2 seconds to request so it didn't interupt my show. (And as long as TiVo managed my email and sent me the links - I wouldn't want to get massive spamming).

That said, users shouldn't worry - TiVo knows it's primary success comes from users who want to skip commercials so I seriously doubt they'll do anything that jepordizes or alienates those users.

Overlay- neat idea, advertisers will kill this...

[rsborg]

If Tivo and others really wanted to get ahead of the curve I'd suggest targeted commercial breaks, i.e., instead of the broad spectrum network advertising during commercial breaks, overlay them with targeted and well-crafted shorts designed to catch the eye of that tivo's owner tastes.

Given the many content industry executives' opinions regarding "not watching advertising == theft", how do you think they would react to basically being told that instead of the marginal "blipverts" you get when watching, now *some other advertiser* gets to fully overwrite that even marginal visibility? Talk about ad-space dilution.

Now look at it from the advertiser's point of view... you purchase a spot, and some other schmoe gets your audience if that audience has TiVo? Sounds like the web "framing/deep linking" wars all over again.

Re:some personal thoughts about advertising

[mcmonkey]

I think Tivo and others may be missing something here, people watching TV do appreciate a "breather" every once in a while

Huh? "Breather"? Maybe if you're watching The Godfather trilogy, or something on that scale, you might want a bathroom break every couple of hours. But are you so out of shape (mentally and/or physically) you can't make it through a 22-minute (skipping commercials) sit com without a "breather"?

I was a late-comer to "Lost" and caught up by downloading most of the first season. It was so great to watch those episodes without interruption, so easy to get lost in the narrative. Now watching the current episodes, even having to hit the 30-second skip a dozen times every 20 minutes makes the show less enjoyable.

I would not watch that show with commercials. Period. I won't say I'd give up on commercial tv without TiVo--I could still get through Simpsons and some sporting events. But with a drama like Lost that depends on drawing the viewer into a mood and a tone, for me it isn't a question of commercials or no commercials. I wouldn't watch Sopranos with commercials. I wouldn't watch Deadwood with commercials. I wouldn't watch Lost with commercials. Anymore than I would read Lord of the Rings if I had to read 2 pages of ad copy after every chapter.

I've been to the promised land. I have TiVo. I'm not going back. I don't need a "breather". There are enough alternatives--premium channels, DVDs, books, the real world.

For the record, I do watch the ads TiVo downloads. But I don't do it in the middle of a show.

TiVo needs to innovate

[caudron]

TiVo is still a company that matters becuase they innovated. They were (one of?) the first companies to really get timeshifting right. They made it work well and made it cheap enough that people could afford it. They did this when there were no real competitors out there. Yes, I know ReplayTV was there, but at first Replay had some real problems that made TiVo look good by comparison...those problems were short-lived, but they gave TiVo the head start it needed to be the marketshare winner.

What TiVo needs to do is innovate some more. Bring us something that consumers want but can't get elswhere. Do something like Kaleidescape [kaleidescape.com] (but WAY cheaper!), add good TV time/place shifting, stream videos from Netflix, just BE the the entertainment hub in every way possible. Hell, partner with Nintendo to get some Wii hardware under the hood and integrated. Do...something! Because just adding more drive space and HDTV is not going to keep the lead.

Start with decoupling the server from the client. They've started that with the sharing idea, but go all the way. There is NO reason that I should need a recorder in every room. I only need one recorder (as long as it has multiple tuners), but I need many players. And if the players are cheaper and smaller, then you have a new product to market.

Most of this isn't hard. MythTV does much of it already, but Myth just doesn't yet do all this in a consumer friendly off-the-shelf hardware package. TiVo can bring this to reality. They have the street cred with retailers to get a revolutionary new device on Best Buy's shelves.

Hell, just partner with MythTV and offer GOOD prepackaged Myth boxes for all I care, but do something besides offering my yet larger HDDs in lieu of real innovation. 60 hours of TV is plenty. Give me a reason to sit down and watch it.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]

Re:some personal thoughts about advertising

[dugjohnson]

Since Tivo can tell what we are watching, why not use that fact to feedback additional information to the broadcasters of which commercials we ARE watching? Seems to me that there would be some real value. If Google can make money on click throughs, it makes sense that Tivo ought to be able to do SOMETHING with what they know of our viewing habits.
Can't wait for the paranoiacs to come out of the bushes on this one....not my intent, but expected.
I actually Tivo the superbowl so I can watch the commercials.
Because of Tivo I now watch a lot more TV than I used to, for better or worse, and probably see more actual commercials, or at least the basics as they go by. If advertising can make 1 second commercials, skimming through a commercial break should have about the same effect.

I don't care what they do, for now.

[artifex2004]

I've still got my ReplayTV 50xx, which at least tries to auto-skip commercials, and doesn't tie up my bandwidth downloading special advertising.

I'll care when I move to HDTV. But I mostly only watch PBS and news, anyway. If I have to, I'll use my USB2-based HDTV dongle to record those, so I'm more concerned with whether DVICO comes out with OSX drivers :)

what's really the product

[White Yeti]

At the risk of wandering into Offtopic [slashdot.org] Trollsville [islets.net], it's the advertizers that are buying a product from the broadcasters. The product? US. The viewers. Eyeballs, hearts and minds.

Re:We never watch commercials

[bill_kress]

I've noticed a similar thing--one that's actually kind of annoying.

If you are watching a show at 9:00 or 9:30, you will see a lot of ads for the 10:00 news. We don't record the news, but occasionally they will have a pretty good teaser and we'll stop and watch it. Bummer is, we are ALWAYS watching after the fact so we can't switch over and start recording the news because it's typically finished before we notice.

What I might be interested in is "Sets" of adds. Upcoming specials on the network channels, upcoming news teasers and maybe new adds.

Hell, I'd watch all the news ads once, and I'd pay attention to them! (if they just didn't waste so much time playing the same exact add every 10-20 minutes throughout a two hour movie!)

Re:ReplayTV

[Lumpy]

I also am a replay owner but not because of that. It surpassed the TiVO in capabilities over 4 years ago and was the only choice for a large home with 3 tuner capability but able to wathc any of that conten on any player. TiVo could not do it (all Replays network to become one recorder with X recording tuners and all the sotrage added together. Tivo still does not have this capability, and it wow's all tivo owners I know that for only $99.00 and $6.00 a month I can add another playback location AND another recording tuner to my replayTV system. Tivo will certianly be copying that capability soon if they dont completely sell out to the sattelite and Cable companies.

Re:some personal thoughts about advertising

[instarx]

...it's not like the commercial goes unnoticed. It's just like "Ford, Citibank, Local political ad, back to the show". So we know what ads are on even if they flip by in seconds. And if we happen to see one that catches our eye or we actually want to watch, we'll watch it.

This is exactly right. I was one of the first Tivo buyers too, and quickly found out that it is not like the ads go away, you just get extremely short synopses of them. What is more, while I'm sitting watching the FF images flash by I'm paying attention to them! Why? Because I have my finger on the stop button so I won't FF too far into the show and have to back up. I will often see an interesting image during the FF and stop to see what the commercial is all about. I think advertisers are missing the boat when they don't edit their commercials to attract viewer interest during DVR FF.