TiVo now placing ads on the delete screen

I finally saw TiVo‘s new advertising placements on the “Delete this recording?” screen. It was a one line blurb for Burger King that you could click into via the remote. It was not intrusive and didn’t change how to delete a recording at all.

If TiVo can do stuff like that to improve their bottom line, I’m all in favor of it. They are saying: “Here’s some advertising If you want to see it, click on it.” I still have the choice in viewing the ad or not. If it keeps TiVo from going under or having to raise the subscription fees, then it’s a great thing. I do wonder how the advertising is selected. Is it targeted by the show that was recorded, or is it more random?

One thing TiVo could do is to display subtitles when you fast forward through a commercial. That way if you were skipping over a commercial and you could still get the message of the commercial. You might see something that makes you stop and view that commercial. The technology is already inplace, subtitles are already encoded in the TV signal.