Comments on: Is TiVo Killing TV and TiVo ?

By: Mike Granetz

Mike Granetz — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:02:47 +0000

Television is entertainment. Advertising is perceived as anannoyance. Now, technology allows us to remove or reduce that annoyance. But advertisers and those that selling it have gotten smarter – with ad delayed viewing, produce placements and even using the star of your show in an ad during the show so you think the program is back. However, the metrics don’t lie. First generation advertising crashed and burned on the web – but now, with the new media, user-generated content and social networks it is a billion dollar business. What change have we seen over the last 50 years in television advertising? The solution isn’t to force users to watch ads, but for advertisers to get smarter and more creative with messaging and integrated campaigns? Just see the latest VW ad on TV, the website promotes: http://www.facebook.com/vw – not http://www.vw.com. And who doesn’t stop and skipback when they see Apple’s Mac vs PC ads (humor and brand) blur by? Perhaps it isn’t the media, but the message.

By: Rick Thomas

Rick Thomas — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:24:13 +0000

Gary – I completely agree with your point. The shotgun model is being pushed to the ropes as technology allows advertisers to better understand who and how many people are viewing their content. From my perspective, cable companies are in a good position to leverage this new data because they have the ability to offer customers content that is specific to their liking. On-demand programming on Cable is still relatively young, but this model is likely to become the norm for cable companies. Aside from sporting events and a few other live events, scheduled programming is really unnecessary(in my opinion). People are accustomed to taping their favorite shows like Lost or Entourage and watching them at a time that is convenient for them. There really is no difference in taping(and watching later) and simply watching programs in an on demand basis through “channels” like On-Demand Cable or Internet “channels” like Hulu.

By: Gary Moran

Gary Moran — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:00:20 +0000

There is one piece that is missing from this, Tivo and cable companies can sell this data, which then can help advertisers target their markets. The shotgun advertising idea may be dead but targeted ads are just beginning. As someone who has worked in the Cable industry for years, this is a big initiaitive that is just beginning.