November 28, 2005

Search for Advertisements on TiVo

The ability to search for commercials on TiVo is coming. According to The Wall Street Journal:

TiVo users will be able to set up a profile of products on their television screens by clicking on categories such as automotive or travel or typing in keywords such as "BMW" or "cruises." On a regular basis, TiVo will then download relevant commercials to TiVo recorders over the Internet or, for those users who don't have broadband, send the video via traditional broadcast signals. The commercials will appear on-screen in a folder next to the list of television shows TiVo users record.

Basically this means that sometime next spring, TiVo users will be able to search for commercials. At first this might sound a little lame but it's really ingenious. As consumers we don't like to be advertised to, but how often do we do web searches for a product we're interested in? I'd bet that giving consumers control of commercials will be even more profitable for advertisors than cramming something down our throats.

TiVo is looking at having advertisers bid on keywords just like Google Adsense. I could see this really taking off for TiVo and even cable services. While people will continue to skip commercials as they do now, I bet they wouldn't hesitate to search and watch commercials at their convenience.

At WallStreetJournal.com