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Buy From Amazon With Your TiVo
PunkOfLinux writes "From The NYTimes comes news that TiVo and Amazon have reached an agreement to allow consumers to purchase products from Amazon through their television sets using their TiVo remote control. TiVo will launch the new service to consumers by merchandising products related to several high-profile programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Colbert Report, and Burn Notice. Broadband-connected Series2, Series3, and TiVo HD DVRs will be able to take advantage of the new feature." This sounds like the latest incarnation of the dream of television executives who in the early '90s talked about the "information superhighway," before it was clear that the Internet was going to fill that role. What they envisioned was "interactive TV," i.e. buying stuff with your remote.
If you press something like 888, you get localish car sales. I think there's one for real estate too. Granted, you can't press BUY NOW, because you'd really need to hide the remote from your children...
Well, the Apple TV does just that. You use iTunes to buy movies and songs with a remote control. In other words, it's not really a bad idea if they manage to figure out how to do this well.
I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies. I been able to get music (via MusicChoice) and movies (via Amazon Unbox) on my HD Tivo for quite some time.
Not that I do...
Schrödinger's cat is not amused—maybe.
I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies.
Yeah, like if you like how the killer used the reciprocating saw to dismember the body on CSI:, buy it now with a ThumbsUp on your TiVo remote.
I'm not shitting you: one of the CSI shows had product placement of a reciprocating saw as a dismemberment tool, first shown prominently in the episode (matching blade marks to bone), then the exact same model was advertised during a commercial break.
I won't like it if it means pop-ups during the show. And I own 8 TiVos (7 subscribed).
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
The GUI on my Series2 Tivo is really slow when doing anything but navigating the standard menus and browsing shared mp3 files on my LAN. All of the nifty new features: Picasa Web Albums, Swivel Search, etc...all are frustrating experiences with the PLEASE WAIT clock on the screen. I think the processor in the older series2 Tivos aren't up to the task of these fancy new features. And spelling out book titles with a TV remote? (Arrow to letter > Select Letter > Arrow to next letter > Select Next Letter). No thanks!
Just what we've always wanted - more screen real estate taken up by ads and things we DON'T WANT. I mean think about it - how many people REALLY want to have something pop on their screen about how they can buy Burn Notice merchandise through their TiVo? We got the damn things so we didn't have to watch commercials (time-shifting, while awesome was secondary). I see slowly the TiVo is getting more things in the UI that take up space and want you to purchase something. Guess what? I already DID! It was a TiVo to stop me from getting annoyed by requests to purchase something.
I've never really considered using something like MythTV or MS Media Center, but damn - if they can't stop adding useless crap Ads and things to the TiVo I will have to look pretty hard at an alternative.
Actually, the news item made it sound like Amazon went back to the 90's thinking. My point was that there are ways of doing this in a really good way. I also provided Apple as a good example of this.
You say I am an Apple fan boy, but I really am not. In fact, I really dislike the iPhone and I can't stand OSX. Just because I point to Apple doesn't mean that I praise them.
Full Tilt
A friend of mine worked at a marketing agency where she worked with a prototype system similar to this, howeverit was even more interactive. At any given time during a show, you could:
1) Hit the pause button
2) Point the remote at the TV which controles a mouse like cursor (think Wii Remote)
3) Point to car\shirt\bag\etc that happened to be on the screen at the time
4) Click it and be directed to a 'buy it now' interface
The idea is that companies would pay the show for product placement adding to the revenue of the show and ... dare I say... eliminate the need for commercials.
The only problem I foresee with this approach is increasingly blatant product placement within shows which WILL get to the point of being distracting, much like commercials are today.
Never underestimate the addictiveness of immediate gratification.
It happened a couple of times that I've been browsing the 'App Store' and just thought "I need that!" and bought it.
Combining TV watching, aspiration to own 'stuff on TV', with credit card information (on Amazon), and the ability to buy on a whim, we should see this take off.
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No no...
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