Ads coming soon to a paused TiVo menu near you
By Laura June 
posted December 9th 2008 6:01PM
posted December 9th 2008 6:01PM
This should make a lot of people unhappy. According to a press release issued today, TiVo will now offer ad space on its pause menu. Designed to outsmart those who fast-forward through the ads (we assume that's almost everyone at this point, right?) buyers will be able to target viewers of a specific show, or they can opt to "cast a wider net" and advertise within genres or keywords of program descriptions. Even if this means we'll be seeing ads for Shrute Farms beets during The Office, we're still going to hold out hope for the TiVo version of Adblock.[Via Zatz Not Funny]
I do see some legal problems here, or at least ethical.
The regular ads pay for the TV programming.
But as most people fast forward that part, TiVo now replace it with there own advertising and I would
guess not sending a check to the TV networks,
It would be like business model I though about 10 years ago,
Give people free or heavily discounted TV that have been custom made
to change the networks advertizing with ad from local businesses.
I sell the ad slots to help pay for the TV discounts, but forward none of the profit to the networks.
We're paying for TIVO!!!!! I thought we were paying for the ability to skip ads. Sellout for sure.
Technically, they "sold out" when they started selling Tivo boxes and made people pay for the service.
If every time you stopped your car an ad flashed across your rear window and Ford or GM were payed for it, everybody would go crazy, $20 grand for a car at X% a year and you run ads across my rear window for Viagra,
Aw, crud....you just gave the ailing auto industry a revenue idea. Watch for it next year on a windshield near you.
That already happens! They're called billboards, and they intrude not just when you are stopped but DURING YOUR DRIVING EXPERIENCE AS WELL!! Can you believe it? The lunacy!
awesome, now Tivos are subscription free right...?
I am a low vision TiVo owner.
Often I rewind and pause so I can see something onscreen that went by too quickly.
If the ads cannot be turned off this will be a major inconvenience.
I don't mind, if I pause the show I'm not pausing to study the frame. I have two TIVO's and they hands down beat the peformance of my previous Comcast DVR's. Plus transferrings shows between the two is nice.. As well as Netflix however I still like the interface on the 360 for Netflix better..:)
I guess I can now cross Tivo off of my list of future purchases.
Bah, to all the folks who are complaining about the TiVo subscription fee, just get a lifetime subscription like I did on both my TiVos. I actually tried to price out a home-built machine (for MythTV, Windows Media Center, etc.) vs. TiVo HD plus lifetime subscription and the TiVo came out either cheaper or roughly the same price. Besides, if you want to DVR HD content, it's a non-starter. Either you buy a TiVo (and pay the lifetime subscription fee), pay roughly double the price for a MediaCenter PC with CableCard support, or use whatever craptastic DVR your cable company gives you. No brainer in my case -- I'll take the TiVo.
I have been a tivo subscriber since they started up many moons ago. Funny thing is, I never thought I was paying for commercial free television, I am paying for their software which provides programming information. Yes, I FF through commercials. Yes, I don't like that Tivo is now being paid for advertising. I still have my series 1 that does not have any Tivo service plan in it (my lifetime plan is on my Series 3 HD). I can still use it, FF through commercials and pause live TV. The only thing I don't get is programming information. So, really folks, understand what you're paying for. You're not paying Tivo to not give you commercials, you're paying Tivo for programming information and other features that they provide such as downloadable content from YouTube (why????) and Netflix.