Apparently trying to placate client companies who are edgy about user ability to skip over advertising, digital video recording company TiVo has said it is testing interactive advertising tools. The company has released the first in a round of ad features to limited subscribers at random, including a tag popping up on screen while a user fast-forwards through an advertisement during recording of a live broadcast.
Under this new test, if a TiVo-using viewer hits the “thumbs-up” or “select” button during the half second the tag is shown, they’ll be redirected to a menu leading to more information about the advertised product, TiVo said in announcing the new trial program March 28.
The tag consumes a quarter of the screen, TiVo said, adding that they were now working with only a single advertiser in the experimental program, a movie studio whose identity the company didn’t reveal in its announcement.
TiVo insisted they were not trying out the ad tools to bedevil their customers. "Our goal is in no way to interfere with the TiVo experience," spokesman David Shane said as the company announced the test program. Still, some viewers were said to have had technical problems with the ad tag, though the company added that only a small number of those involved in the program test were affected that way.
The new ad tools will be tested only with Series 2 TiVo owners, but they could be applied to Series 1 and DirecTiVo customers as well once the Series 2 testing is finished, the company suggested. And while subscribers cannot opt out of the feature, TiVo added, they can ignore the ad tags.
This is not to say that the experiment is a complete surprise move, considering that TiVo, according to several reports, has been working on interactive ad technology for a long time. But interactive advertising is also part of a deal TiVo made with Comcast earlier this month.
