Zatz Not Funny. . .?Blog Archive ? TiVo Adds Spam (Yet Again): Earlier this week you might have caught my post on TiVo’s newest initiative to shoot customized advertising at you.
Today #1 TiVo watcher/blogger Dave Zatz is out saying that he’s tired of the ads:
“We started with Showcases and those “yellow star” menu items, then graduated to the pop-up ads arrived, followed by advertising masquerading as downloadable video, and just this week Product Watch commercials-on-demand were launched. Having fun yet? Now the already cluttered Series 2 Music, Photos, Products, and More area is gaining a custom Lexus application. Would you like a little TV with your commercial?”
I guess on the one hand this doesn’t bother me as much as Dave as I really only use my TiVo for one thing, recording HDTV content. And as long as they leave my recorded programs menu clutter free I kind of don’t mind what they fill the rest of the menus up with. And TiVo does need to be profitable and these ads help towards that end.
Still, I probably would start to get more annoyed if I used my TiVo the way that it should be used, more as a complete living room home media play.
This is primarily what I use my Media Center PC for. Unfortunately Media Center also has it’s own problem with this but fortunately you can get rid of most of the spam, ads, bloatware, etc. that you don’t want to see on your PC.
In the past I’ve blogged about what a pain in the ass it is to have to spend two hours first thing when you get a new PC taking all the crap off it. At least with my Media Center PC though I can get most of it off the unit.
TiVo should offer advanced users a way to opt out of all of the ads if they want. They could still ship it by default which would give them tons of exposure, but it doesn’t make sense to piss off more advanced users like Dave who are, doh, already inclined to hate advertising, remember he bought a TiVo to skip ads?