TiVo has been on a roll over the last few weeks with announcements of new
offerings for users of its DVR devices. TiVo is working hard to set itself
apart from the other DVR makers and make buying a separate DVR from it more
attractive than simply going with a cable or satellite provider DVR like the
bulk of DVR users do.
For a long time now, TiVo ffered its users the ability to buy digital films
via Amazon’s Unbox service. Last week TiVo announced that YouTube
was now available to users of Series 3 and HD DVRs. TiVo announced this
week that it was teaming up with Amazon to offer a feature that will allow TiVo
users to purchase
the products that are featured in commercials and on talk shows and other
programs.
What many will see as the odd bit is that the vast majority of customers use
a DVR to skip the commercials making selling products from commercials a bit
difficult to do. However, TiVo says that the service with Amazon could also
offer the ability for users to purchase products being talked about on talk
shows or products seen in placements during a show.
According to The New York Times, the Amazon/TiVo service would
automatically record a program being viewed if a product link was accessed
during a program so the user would not miss the show. Alternatively users could
simply add products to a list for purchase later.
This is the latest in a series of moves by TiVo to move form a set top box
maker to a company bringing new advertising methods to broadcasters. The catch
with this vision according to Timothy Hutton, senior vice president for Denuo,
is that TiVo’s user base is very small by national advertiser standards with
only 4 million users.
This is a main reason TiVo is looking to become a software licensor that
offers a software product that can be used inside various different devices
from TVs to DVRs being used by cable companies not made by TiVo.