Advertising Comes to DVR Owners 294
bill_kress writes "According to Reuters, television studios are finally trying to target DVR viewers with advertising. The effort, however, seems rather backwards — They are extending the same exact image across the entire 30 second commercial so that TIVO Viewers will be forced to view at least one frame. Wouldn't it be better to add value to the viewing experience instead?" From the article: "The advert for its new drama 'Brotherhood' will show a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second slot, and therefore retain its "sales message" when viewed even at the 12-times speeds enabled by Sky+ and other digital recorders, also known as personal video recorders, or PVRs. Advertisers have been racing to find ways to get messages through as higher numbers of consumers watch TV programs when they want using such recorders, often skipping the commercials."
Ads Targeting TiVo (Score:5, Interesting)
The last second of their ad was a set of single frames with interesting information. To see what was there, you had to repeatedly watch the ad until you managed to hit pause at just the right time so you could single-step through the hidden content.
That way, (at least some) TiVo owners ended up spending 15 minutes on a 30-second ad. Now THAT's creative!!
Re:Ads Targeting TiVo (Score:3, Interesting)
"GE managed to get consumers to spend 15 minutes on a 30 second ad with their TiVo, how come your company is trying to stop TiVo's? aren't you CLEVER enough to think of this kind of innovation? - Nah, nah na nah nahhhh! [/teasing]
Re:Doh! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow (Score:3, Interesting)
No adaware or spybotS&D is going to scrub those things. There is no escaping them. What do we do?
Re:Go Go! (Score:2, Interesting)
Digital Networks is still in business and they werent sued. they didnt market themselves like Tivo so they didnt make as much money. the ended up selling the company to Digital Networks. while they dont make hardware anymore, but they still release software updates for the existing Replays.
does the new series 3 Tivo still require a landline for intial setup of the box?
if you want lan connectivity, do you still have to buy the usb adapter?
how long did it take Tivo to enable(without hacking) you to tranfer recorded programs from your Tivo to your pc?
do I need to go on about the superiority of the ReplayTV box or should I stop now?
having used both, there are 2 things Tivo did better than ReplayTV:
1) marketing
2) channel guide layout
Re:Ads Targeting TiVo (Score:3, Interesting)
Then why not extend that and fill the whole 30 seconds with interesting information?
Re:Ads Targeting TiVo (Score:3, Interesting)
I have absolutely no idea what HeadOn is for or why they are advertising it but it was enough to make sure we stopped the Tivo to watch it. Then we watched it again and again to make sure that we were laughing for good reason
Good thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, I'd really hate to be suckered in by an advertisement that was actually relevant!
But, by watching everything months later I can be sure that any shows being advertised will have been shown long ago... and, like every other frikken commercial... of absolutely no use to me.
So, until I'm:
1) geriatric
2) female
3) senile
4) stupid
5) impotent
6) over weight
7) bored
8) unable to solve my own problems
9) unable to read
etc...
I think I'll just keep skipping commercials. Because, at best... they are a complete waste of my time.
Re:Same old, Same old (Score:3, Interesting)
While I'm not old enough to remember not having commercials on Cable TV, I did have a comment about movie theaters.
The local 8 room theater has a slide show that is sync'ed to an audio track. This plays BEFORE the movie start time. You can avoid it outright, IF you are willing to get into the room as the movie starts. You still have the few movie trailers, but I like to see them because I often see them before they hit TV. When I went on vacation to SoCal to see my father, I went into an AMC and a Cinemark -- BOTH played really annoying full motion TV commercials (LONGER versions) *at* the movie start time. Both my father and I were debating leaving because of it.
Back to the local theater (to me). I happen to know the guy that runs it (did some PC work for him when I worked for a local PC repair shop). I told him that I would no longer visit his business if he *ever* did that. He agreed that it is annoying and then went into a talk about how expensive it is to run a theater. After he finished, I told him it was not the fault of the studios, but the theater owners -- the theater owners are the ones that are allowing the studios to walk all over them. They need to band together and negotiate with the studios for better pricing or refuse to show the movies. He told me it'd never work, and started in on his thoughts as to why. I interrupted him mid-thought and told him, "If a good majority of the theaters -- chains and individually owned - just stopped showing movies, it will hit the studios bottom lines. If the theater owners provided very simple, clear, and easy to understand information on their closed and locked doors, with phone numbers to the studios, people WILL complain, and things WILL change."
Will that be easy? No. I think it will need to happen, though. It's expensive enough on theater owners (especially independants) to equip their theaters, they don't need high movie prices to finish them off.
To bring me back to topic -- My brand new DVR625 (I think that's the model -- it's the newer SD dual tuner Dish Network has) has a 30-ish second skip. The day it no longer operates as expected is the day it gets boxed back up and sent to Dish. I've been a customer of theirs for 6 or so years and won't put up with that. Unlike many TV addicted homes, I will have no problems getting rid of it and buying any shows I currently watch on DVD or getting the rest from 'the tubes'.
Re:When will it stop? (Score:2, Interesting)
>>>Why do people watch Internet Video ads (the ones that come before clips)?
I don't. I spend the whole 20 seconds trying to figure out how to skip it (and often succeeding).