Looking for Ads on Tivo -- Don't Laugh

David Card | November 29, 2005, 07:28 PM

It's too easy to mock Tivo for working on a platform "allowing users to search for commercials to skip." (Great line, though, Gary.) A couple reasons why this initiative isn't brain dead:

- DRTV spending (that's infomercials, folks) is in the $3-4 billion a year range
- Conversion rates for direct-mail marketing videotapes are famously high
- Look who's involved: that's a nice list of big media buyers and the biggest US cable MSO. (Yes, my usual rule of "partnership" importance analysis applies: must have two of three -- money changes hands, product ships, exclusivity. Unclear on all counts.)
- What do you think Food Network is, anyway? And the Travel Channel? Branded entertainment? Infomercialtainment? Whatever.

I'm not sold on active keyword search on the big screen for a while. Not without a keyboard. Voice recognition? Nah, it'll have to be links in the guide, a la tune-to's, with suggestions. And if I were a studio, I wouldn't pay by the click to show a trailer. Geez, not everything has to mimic paid search advertising.

Meanwhile, our surveys say nearly 40% of DVR users skip commercials "most of the time" while 12% say they "don't watch any commercials anymore." Definitely time to start thinking creatively.