Slashdot Mirror
TiVo Starts Testing "Pop-up" Ads
mkraft writes "ZDNet is reporting that TiVo has started a testing a new pop-up style ad on a random and limited number of subscriber's TiVo as of this weekend. The ads are designed to be displayed on screen when the user fast forwards through specially tagged commercials. Clicking the thumbsup or select button on the TiVo remote will take the user to a menu containing more information about the advertisement (text and/or video).
Unfortunately according to reports on the TiVo Community forums the ads are also showing up during actual programs as well."
Nothing like watching a great show and having to minimize the link for the latest viagra pill with your kids.
And to think, TiVo use to be a quality DVR...
I guess the pressure about the ability to skip ads and their lack of revenue convinced them to take this approach.
One would think that with the recent signing with Comcast that TiVo wouldn't have the need to pull something like this.
Given my choice in the future I do believe I shall stick with something more like MythTV
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
Let me get this straight: I pay for the TiVo device itself, then I pay a monthly service fee. Now I also have to put up with highly invasive advertising?
This might be acceptable if there was no monthly fee for using the device, but this is akin to adding commercials to HBO. Either choose to be subscription-supported or advertising-supported, but not both.
Complain loudly and complain often. Tivo is not on the most stable ground that they can afford to piss off their user base. As soon as this starts happening on my machines i will be calling them threatening to cancel my subscription.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
I'm sorry, if I allready paid for the machine, and on top of that, I'm paying a monthly fee for the service, I do *not* find it acceptable to have the service push ads at me. If you're going to be pushing ads at me, then start refunding my monthly fee. That's the way things work for me. I'm willing to pay you for your service, no problem. But I'm going to pay you in *either* cash or ads, not both. And seeing as part of the reason I got a Tivo was to skip ads, then replacing those ads with other ads is *not* acceptable to me.
Looks like it's time to finally sit down and build that MythTV box I've been thinking about.
"Two things are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the first one." - Albert Einstein
They say they're barely keeping afloat, yet how can they have screwed up so badly like this? I mean, they have a monthly fee you have to pay for the service right? That's income generated on a monthly basis...and new subscribers etc etc. And let's face it, the equipment can't be all that expensive (for them).
What I want is to walk into a store and pick up a digital recorder that records on a HD that I don't have the idiotic monthly fee. Just give me a recording device that..you know...comes on at 8pm, records an hour, then goes off at 9pm. It can still have the pause-while-recording feature and the skipping of the commercials and everything...but WHY be tied to a monthly fee bullshit?
Is there such a thing out there without me having to build a MythTV box?
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
I have never understood why TiVO is the PVR that gets all the press. I have two PVRs from ReplayTV that I really like. I don't have ads popping up and I can jump (not just fast-forward) past commercials. ReplayTV did try a pause ad for a while a couple of years back, but cancelled it after users complained. The only ads they have now are an occasional (about 2/yr) ad for a ReplayTV sale or contest.
What a bunch of whiners, most of which don't even own a TiVo nor have used it for any significant length of time.
I'm a mostly happy TiVo Subscriber, while it's a far from perfect product from a far from perfect company it is IMO the best product out there overall. Of all the commercially available DVRs out there the only one that comes close is ReplayTV. Sure a MythTV or other DIY PVR offers better control (that I would like) but is not viable for 95% of American consumers (probably a conservative estimate).
TiVo has , and will continue to make compromises in the services they provide that while detrimental to the users have kept TiVo operational (if not profitable). ReplayTV tried to give the consumer everything and it put them into bankruptcy TWICE.
Admittedly I've yet to see these new ads on my TiVo but as long as they don't interfere with my ability to fast forward (which it doesn't sound like they do) than my core functionality is not impacted and I'm still a happy customer. I think the number of people who find the idea of commercials patently offensive (as is the general theme from non TiVo owning people rushing to decry this) is small compared to the number who won't care what's on the screen while they FF as long as they can get back to the O.C. in 10 seconds.
If you're one of the users who has pop-ups coming during regular programming, call up Tivo. Complain. Play the dumb card and talk to as many people as possible. Start asking for stuff like a new Tivo because yours is obviously broken (since...the pop-ups aren't supposed to be doing this, right?) or credit for your monthly service. It's an 800 charge to Tivo and their customer support time wasted.
Now, who knows what's going to happen...but if enough people complain, they might think again about how and when they place these pop-ups. If you're a user paying a monthly fee for their service and don't like something, it's worth your time to let Tivo actually know about it rather than just the slashdot crowd.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
Good Eats is, as far as I'm concerned, hands down the best cooking show on TV. Basically cooking for geeks, and I can think of no reason why demographics would target it to females in particular. Its a great show for either gender.
But demographics aside, why would an ad pop up during the actual content of the show? That's just absurd!
Yup, I'm currently boycotting movie theaters because of this.
:(
I remember in the late 80's or early 90's it was either the first or second 'new' Batman movie with Michael Keaton. They had an advertisement for Coke at the beginning. It was even themed for the movie and people were OUTRAGED. For the next 10 years or so there were no more attempts that I remember to do non-movie commercials before movies.
Man how times have changed.. and fast.
But, unfortunately, I don't think our wallets are very loud in these cases. Movie theaters, television, music etc. is all teenager domain.. and I don't see teenagers boycotting any form of entertainment any time soon. Even advertisements are 'cool' for teenagers these days. As long as teenagers are buying up movie tickets and chugging down ad after ad without complaining then it's here to stay
Yeah, because your cable company is a pillar of virtuous marketing techniques and would NEVER try something like this.
I know this is the straw on the camel for you and you have other reasons for switching, but trust me, you'll be seeing these again inside of 6 months.
Trends like these are all over the place in advertising. There's an initial horrid reaction of the disgust and intolerance. And then, people just move on and get used to it. You become numb to the advertising...
Remember when previews were the first thing on a movie screen? Now...I watch advertising for local companies the entire time before the projector even starts. And then, I get about 5 minutes of movie-sized commercials before the previews. This is for a movie I've already paid $10 to go see.
Video games have become saturated with product placement and music singles. Games used to use generic descriptions and canned music.
Entire television shows are dedicated to selling products. The real-life business opportunities for The Apprentice candidates are paid advertising bought buy those companies. A few million bucks and your product gets a 30-minute show based around having people promote and sell your brand. It's reality TV mixed with an infomercial, but people flock to season after season of it.
Does anyone even notice the corner ads in the entire Comcast menu guide anymore? Any time you change the channel or browse the listings, you're hit with an ad.
It's all stuff we've learned to ignore. Tivo seems to be no exception to the trends and over time, we'll block that out as well. A vicious cycle...but one which will continue unless companies aren't interested in making more money than they did last year.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
Boycotting the theatre is the wrong idea. You boycott the products being advertised. Anytime I see a product in theatre, I write an e-mail to that company (c.c.ed to the theatre's company) and state that I will no longer (or will decide against) purchasing their product because I find it offensive to pay $____ for a movie and have to watch their ads.
Occasionally, I wouldn't see the ad at the next show (but it was probably coincidence).
There haven't been that many good movies out lately anyway.
Same with ads. I come from the netherlands and am so old that I remember when tv only had ads between programs and not even that on sundays and other christian holidays. Of course we only had 1 dutch channel, yes I am really really old, but german tv had only the occasional ad block in the afternoon (although it was bloody long) and belgian tv has maybe 1 ad per day. BBC of course has none.
But now we got commercial tv and the ads are in the program and last for far to long. It is so bad that with my memory I forget wich program I was watching. Meaning I zap to another channel and don't return OR as is happening more and more just don't watch tv but watch bittorrent instead.
I didn't mind the ads in the olden days. 1-2 minutes between programs. That was acceptable. But 5+ minutes every 15 minutes is to much.
Why should the tv channels care? Well because I went from watching a couple of ads to watching 0 ads.
Same really with the net. It took me quit a while to start with adblockers because the occasional ad I could live with. But they kept forcing more and more ads onto me until I reached breaking point and installed an adblocker. Now I don't see any ads. Including the one for this page. Though shit that slashdot loses income, my breaking point has been reached. Now even 1 ad getting to the adblocker has me instantly adding the url to the block list. To many ads means that I now don't want to see a single one.
This move by tivo seems the ultimate arrogance and ignorance by the ad pushers. The entire idea behind tivo is to skip ads and yet you are aiming your ads at these people? THEY DON'T WANT YOUR ADS. The only thing this can possibly achieve is that either people move away from tivo OR put an embargo on your product.
If ad pushers want to get people to watch their ads they should realize that they need to reduce the amount of ads we see. Companies wanting to advertise. 1 ad in a movie is watched. your 1 ad between 5 minutes of other ads is not watched. TV companies. 1 ad per movie might just fetch you a far higher price AND get more viewers then the other channels.
Then again we are talking about the tv industry. Brains are not exactly their strong point. Currently young males are no longer watching tv so much as before. Strangely this happened at the exact same time as reality tv became a staple diet of every channel. TV bosses reaction. MORE REALITY TV.
From that same logic it is not hard to see how the reaction people zapping away from ads is to show more ads or how you buy ad time on a device designed to skip ads. Maybe Heineken should sponsor AA meetings.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Ted Turner, is that you?
Seriously though, that is one of the most pathetic things I've read in a while. Either you have some extermely twisted concept of "theft", or you've been brainwashed into thinking you're somehow "obligated" to the media producers above and beyond any agreements or contracts you have with them.
Don't get me wrong... you have the right to waste your time however you see fit, but to feel that there is any legal, ethical, or moral obligation for one to watch ads is absurd. Have you actually SEEN what modern advertizing is like? Advertizing accounts for almost a THIRD of primetime airtime. Most ads are psychologically manipulative, intellectually assaulting and demeaning! Have a little self respect for heaven's sake!
I'd rather go entirely without TV than be obliged to watch ads, and I along with many others would gladly PAY for content without ads if necessary. Most modern ads are targeted toward sheeple that don't have an original thought to their name. If you fall into that category I'm sorry for you.
If enough people rejected mindless and inane advertizing, you might end up with ad-free channels and seperate advertizing channels where the ads were good enough that people WANTED to watch them (ala cleo awards).