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Advertising Comes to DVR Owners

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you-will-enjoy-the-signal dept.

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."

6 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by CerebusUS · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gee, that won't upset the standard viewing public at all... will it?

    Maybe they could play an emergency test tone over the entire 30 seconds, just to get everyone's attention.

  2. Go Go! by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tivo: Go go gadget 30 second skip!

    MythTV: Go go gadget commercial detection and skip!

    Windows DVRs: Uh... Go go gadget DRM! Aw, crap!

    Ryan Fenton

  3. Ads Targeting TiVo by lpoulsen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    GE did something infinetely more intelligent a few months ago.
    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!!

  4. Wouldn't more interesting adds be the answer? by AndyG314 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I see a good, or interesting looking add I will stop to watch it. A great example of this is the add with Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope. You can't just wizz by Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope, you have to see what it's all about. Turnes out the add was for sleeping pills.

    --
    If it's dead, you killed it.
  5. The Spinal Tap Solution.... by lexsco · · Score: 5, Funny

    .....PVR's that skip 31 Seconds.

  6. Their approach doesn't work against Mythtv! by russ1337 · · Score: 5, Informative
    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.
    Fortunately, this does not work against Mythtv - you can skip the entire ad's with one press: -All you see is the start of the show after the ads! The ad detection algorithm just got an overhaul with Googles-Summer-of-Code (they wrote another version), but i've always found the current one pretty good.

    (I know your all gearing up to whine about how hard mythtv is to install,... then you probably havent tried Knoppmyth, or the Hyams Fantastic How-to )