Advertising Comes to DVR Owners

bill_kress writes "According to Reuters, television studios are finally trying to target DVR viewers with advertising. The effort, however, seems rather backwards — They are extending the same exact image across the entire 30 second commercial so that TIVO Viewers will be forced to view at least one frame. Wouldn't it be better to add value to the viewing experience instead?" From the article: "The advert for its new drama 'Brotherhood' will show a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second slot, and therefore retain its "sales message" when viewed even at the 12-times speeds enabled by Sky+ and other digital recorders, also known as personal video recorders, or PVRs. Advertisers have been racing to find ways to get messages through as higher numbers of consumers watch TV programs when they want using such recorders, often skipping the commercials."

Wow

[CerebusUS (21051)]

Gee, that won't upset the standard viewing public at all... will it?

Maybe they could play an emergency test tone over the entire 30 seconds, just to get everyone's attention.

Re:

[johndierks (784521)]

My Tivo has 60x fast forward... so advertisers will have a 1 in 2 chance of me seeing their single frame! I guess they're the gambling type. In all reality, the bigger problem is the huge ads they're overlaying at the bottom of the shows I'm watching. They're animated and very distracting, which is the point after all. Today, they're for other shows on the network, but I'm sure they'll soon be for other products.

Re:

[russ1337 (938915)]

In all reality, the bigger problem is the huge ads they're overlaying at the bottom of the shows I'm watching

I hate those things... I call them pop-ups. The remind me of the old Kazza that was loaded with gozilla ad-ware or some crap. They really piss me off. I take no notice of what they are, or I end up associating being pissed off with what the ad is for.

No adaware or spybotS&D is going to scrub those things. There is no escaping them. What do we do?

Re:Wow

[AxelBoldt (1490)]

There is no escaping them. What do we do?

Get yourself a library card and kill your TV.

Re:

[sobachatina (635055)]

What do we do?

Hmmm. Go read a book?

I think it is amusing that people seem to think that they have to watch TV for some reason. Movies, popular music, and TV are so ingrained in our culture that it doesn't seem to occur to people that you can in fact entertain yourself without them.

Learn to play an instrument- that will keep you happily entertained for the rest of your life.

I understand that this doesn't answer your rhetorical question. I wanted to rant and this seemed like a good place to do it.

Re:Wow

[WilliamSChips (793741)]

Books are great but sometimes you just don't want to read. I don't know why that's so hard to understand for some people.

Re:Wow

[dubiousmike (558126)]

In the mean time, its people who sit in front of their computer for 14 hours a day who are smarmily telling the rest to read a book. That's like yelling to people who are using a Segway that they should ride a bike FROM THEIR CAR.

Re:Wow

[treeves (963993)]

I play an instrument, and not to entertain myself. It's enjoyable, but it's not escape, it's work to some degree.

That said, I don't really give a rip. I don't have a TIVO. I don't even have cable TV. I don't even know why I was reading this. Silly me.

Re:Wow

[HTH NE1 (675604)]

My Tivo has 60x fast forward... so advertisers will have a 1 in 2 chance of me seeing their single frame!

Only if TiVo showed 60x fast-forward updating at only 1 frame per second would that be true. In fact, at 60x speed, out of a 30-second commercial TiVo shows you 15 frames of it in half a second.

To see only one frame of a 30-second commercial without still-storing the frame longer than the standard 1/30th of a second, you'd need 900x speed.

The message will be..

[wfberg (24378)]

The message will be..

OBEY

Re:

[mcmonkey (96054)]

The message will be...

CONSUME

Go Go!

[RyanFenton (230700)]

Tivo: Go go gadget 30 second skip! [bigmarv.net]

MythTV: Go go gadget commercial detection and skip! [mythtv.org]

Windows DVRs: Uh... Go go gadget DRM! Aw, crap!

Ryan Fenton

Re:Go Go!

[Guppy06 (410832)]

"Windows DVRs: Uh... Go go gadget DRM! Aw, crap!"

Uh... my MCE setup did 30 s skip out of the box. In fact, I've become so used to it that it's become a bit of a problem while watching DVDs (it's the same button as chapter skip).

FUD much?

Re:

[MindStalker (22827)]

Oh yes. And remind me what happend to that company? Oh yea they pretty much got sued out of existance.

Re:Go Go!

[amuro98 (461673)]

Tivo calls it an "easter egg". I think Tivo wanted to make it a normal feature, but decided against it after the TV studios growled at them.

Anyways, it takes all of 10 seconds to enable the 30-sec. skip on your Tivo:

Just start playing a program, then hit:

[select] [>] [select] [3] [0] [select] If you did it right, it'll go "ding ding ding" and then the button that used to skip to the 15/30 tic marks, now just skips 30 seconds forward. The only downside to this is that if your Tivo reboots or loses power, you have to re-enter this code in again.

it would, but ...

[joeyspqr (629639)]

"Wouldn't it be better to add value to the viewing experience instead?" only if your primary concern was the viewer instead of advertising fees

So...

[Mattintosh (758112)]

So, how long is it going to take for PVR makers to develop software that reads the AUDIO stream and returns you to your regularly scheduled programming when the waveform peaks go from clipped to normal? I don't want to jump 30 seconds forward. I want to skip the commercials.

Re:

[DDLKermit007 (911046)]

They allready do, but they look at far more than just audio. Models no longer in production that Replay made did exactly that. They got sued and stopped using that, but there are allot out there still if you want them. I use a Replay with comskip functions and it works roughly 80-90% of the time and still has a 30 second skip button. Only problem really is with autocomskip functions is every once in a while you get a show that a part gets mistaked for a comercial, but it's not something you can't deal with.

Re:

[Phillup (317168)]

My child is pretty rarely exposed to television advertising.

Mine actually scream for me to come and ff when commercials come on.

(The little one cries until the show comes back on!)

I actually built a mythbox specifically so I could record the kid's shows and edit out all the crap... now I can set them down and let them watch without the commercials.

I've got one of these [airlinktek.com] that I stuff full of kid shows (and stuff for mom & dad too) for when we go traveling. Very nice to be in a hotel room and not be at the

Re:For G

[PitaBred (632671)]

If it takes moving pictures of a certain type to keep your kid happy, it's time to get them outside more and away from the babysitting box.

Re:For G

[Phillup (317168)]

Actually, they are smart enough to know they are watching a specific show... and that they aren't sitting there to have shit^H^H commercials stuffed into their head.

And, you can't always send the kids outside either.

There is only one of me... mom works too... and someone has to cook dinner.

I can't cook dinner and watch the kids at the same time.

And neither can you.

So, yeah. Sometimes they get to watch the tube. If you don't like it... tough.

They aren't your kids.

Re:

[bill_kress (99356)]

And what happened to reading. Kids who read on their own before preschool end up with significantly better vocabularies and tend to be much more articulate--they also have a lot less trouble with schoolwork.

It requires a lot of work on the parents' part to read to the kid every night from the time they are a baby to get them to take to it, but if that's what it takes to have a smart kid, isn't it worth it?

It's okay to breathe. :-)

[Richard Steiner (1585)]

No need to hold your breath -- it's been done already by a commercial DVR vendor, and the end result is still very much available. Just check out eBay for any 5000-series ReplayTV unit (not 5500-series, which dropped the auto-skip feature).

Except for us MythTV owners!

[gameboyhippo (827141)]

I say "Bring it on!" If all advertisers did this, then it will be easier for my DVR to detect comercials so I don't have to see them at all!

When will it stop?

[Whammy666 (589169)]

You just have to wonder just how dense the network executives really are. I wonder when it will finally sink in that saturating your programming with advertising to the point that the viewing audience revolts is ultimately counter-productive. They should take it as a clue that if viewers are willing to spend several hundred dollars to avoid ads using specialized hardware, there is something seriously wrong with your marketing plan.

Re:

[Whammy666 (589169)]

The networks were able to make profits 10+ years ago when a 60 minute show typically had only 10 minutes of commercials. Now it's 22 minutes of ads in a 60 minute show. I'm sorry, but that's just plain greed talking. Nobody is denying that a non-subscription network needs ad revenue to survive, but there is such a thing as going too far.

Subscription TV has now become worse than network TV in terms of ad saturation. The end result is that I watch very little TV at all anymore. There are so many ads that m

Ads Targeting TiVo

[lpoulsen (148228)]

GE did something infinetely more intelligent a few months ago.
The last second of their ad was a set of single frames with interesting information. To see what was there, you had to repeatedly watch the ad until you managed to hit pause at just the right time so you could single-step through the hidden content.

That way, (at least some) TiVo owners ended up spending 15 minutes on a 30-second ad. Now THAT's creative!!

Re:

[russ1337 (938915)]

The last second of their ad was a set of single frames with interesting information. To see what was there, you had to repeatedly watch the ad until you managed to hit pause at just the right time so you could single-step through the hidden content.

You are right.. that is amaizing. This is the exact type of thing I like to see - innovation! Not the 'cry cry cry, they are fast forwarding our ads, we need a new law' BS! Word up to GE. I'd like to see this example used AGAINST those trying to put through mor

Re:

[Arielholic (196983)]

"The last second of their ad was a set of single frames with interesting information."

Then why not extend that and fill the whole 30 seconds with interesting information?

Re:

[garcia (6573)]

I was far more intrigued with the simplicity of the HeadOn [youtube.com] commercial (no, the YouTube segment is not skipping -- the commercial is really like that).

I have absolutely no idea what HeadOn is for or why they are advertising it but it was enough to make sure we stopped the Tivo to watch it. Then we watched it again and again to make sure that we were laughing for good reason ;)

Re:

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

I'm confused. What exactly am I supposed to do with it?

Wouldn't more interesting adds be the answer?

[AndyG314 (760442)]

If I see a good, or interesting looking add I will stop to watch it. A great example of this is the add with Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope. You can't just wizz by Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope, you have to see what it's all about. Turnes out the add was for sleeping pills.

Re:

[Kesch (943326)]

You can't just wizz by Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope, you have to see what it's all about.

This would make a good .sig

Same old, Same old

[suprcvic (684521)]

Isn't this how it always is though? When Cable TV first arrived it was touted as having no commercials and then they came. We used to have the luxury of not watching commercials at the movie theatre because we paid to be there, now we have to watch the same trailer for the same bad tv show over and over again while we wait for the movie to start. The "no commercials" idea is IMHO a bait and switch maneuver that for some reason always works on consumers. The ridiculous number of commercials is the main reason I don't watch tv anymore. There are some shows I might like to see, but I'm not willing to sit through all the commercials to see them. Of course, it doesn't help that most of the shows are bad shows with excessively overpaid actors which brings us back to the insane amount of commercials, they have to pay for the talent, or lack thereof.

Re:

[michrech (468134)]

Isn't this how it always is though? When Cable TV first arrived it was touted as having no commercials and then they came. We used to have the luxury of not watching commercials at the movie theatre because we paid to be there, now we have to watch the same trailer for the same bad tv show over and over again while we wait for the movie to start. The "no commercials" idea is IMHO a bait and switch maneuver that for some reason always works on consumers. The ridiculous number of commercials is the main reaso

Good.

[JustNiz (692889)]

It sounds like the perfect signal for PVR software to watch for in order to skip commercials automatically.

The Spinal Tap Solution....

[lexsco (594799)]

.....PVR's that skip 31 Seconds.

Re:

[Kesch (943326)]

Pfft. The +Funny in GP podt goes all the way to +6.

Their approach doesn't work against Mythtv!

[russ1337 (938915)]

They are extending the same exact image across the entire 30 second commercial so that TIVO Viewers will be forced to view at least one frame.

Fortunately, this does not work against Mythtv - you can skip the entire ad's with one press: -All you see is the start of the show after the ads! The ad detection algorithm just got an overhaul with Googles-Summer-of-Code (they wrote another version), but i've always found the current one pretty good.

(I know your all gearing up to whine about how hard mythtv is to install,... then you probably havent tried Knoppmyth [mysettopbox.tv], or the Hyams Fantastic How-to [webhop.net] )

Honestly

[Kesch (943326)]

This is just stupid. I consider it a brute force attack at DVR owners, however, I still might miss this commercial thanks to the hidden 30 sec skip feature of the TiVo. (While watching a show: SELECT PLAY SELECT 3 0 SELECT. Your skip 30 min button will now do 30s instead. Repeat whenever an update resets functionality.) While these adds might be reach more DVR owners, they are going to need the most entertaining audio script in the world or they are going to be COMPLETELY boring for average TV viewers.

There is a far more preferable category of commercials targetted at DVR owners: The ones that make you want to stop for them. Some commercials you merely stop for because they either interest you(car commercials when you are car shopping) are are simply well scripted and entertaining(Some of the recent Mac commercials). Then there was also a novel series of commercials that GE was running which had a series of text heavy images that were shown for only a few frames each near the end of the commercial. The point was to create a humorous Easter Egg for DVR owners who would be inclined to pause and advance frame by frame.

Doh!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Just make ads twelve times slower so they are shown with normal speed when fast-forwarding. (-:

Re:

[Odiumjunkie (926074)]

What would be better is carefully crafted ads that will have significance at 12x - perhaps even reveal hidden easter eggs only visible by watching them fast, by working out which frames will actually be viewable when watched at that speed. Messages and animations could be inserted that would be un-noticeable at a normal speed, assuming that 12x will skip frames predictably. A variety of steganography, almost. It would encourage DVR users to view them, especially if the easter eggs were clever or funny, rev

Do it the "stargate" way

[captainstupid (247628)]

Stargate sg-1 recently featured an online companion to the current episode that was only visible while the show was actually being aired. This seems like a very simple and effective way to encourage people to watch the show as it airs and not to TiVo it for later viewing.

That's the easy way out

[Minwee (522556)]

If you really want people to watch your advertisements, make them _want_ to watch. Make them interesting. People will go out of their way to watch them at least once, and share copies with all of their friends.

Of course, the down side to this is that you may have to actually pay someone to do the job.

Good thing...

[Phillup (317168)]

that I watch my shows months after they are recorded.

I mean, I'd really hate to be suckered in by an advertisement that was actually relevant!

But, by watching everything months later I can be sure that any shows being advertised will have been shown long ago... and, like every other frikken commercial... of absolutely no use to me.

So, until I'm:

1) geriatric
2) female
3) senile
4) stupid
5) impotent
6) over weight
7) bored
8) unable to solve my own problems
9) unable to read

etc...

I think I'll just keep skipping commercials. Because, at best... they are a complete waste of my time.

First line in TFA says it all

[just_another_sean (919159)]

"designed to combat viewers using digital recorders to avoid commercials."

It's on biatch!

Cost

[lymond01 (314120)]

I pay an extra $10 a month to rent the DVR from Comcast. What do I have to do to not watch commercials? How much will it cost? Do I have to buy a 12-pack of Pepsi, 2 pairs of Levis, a Toyota Camry, and a pack of Charmin Toilet Tissue every month before the advertisers will leave me alone?

I'm paying money to not watch commercials. I'm not downloading pirated films or rogue recordings. What the hell is the deal?

Re:That'll suck...

[russotto (537200)]

I like this idea. Sounds like a commercial-flagging algorithm could easily detect it and skip every single frame in the recording. Did I mention I have a mythbox?

Re:Now this is just dumb

[kfg (145172)]

Bah, I'll just keep myself full of beer so that I don't understand the visual even if I see it.

Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser
.
.
.
Budweiser

KFG, Brought to you by -- Budweiser

Re:

[ColaMan (37550)]

a gross classification for the ad (gambling, liquor, sex, stuff I don't care about)

Bender, is that you?