I desparately want to buy a TiVo set-top box. It's a smart little device that can pause live tv, that picks up on a user's viewing habits and records what you might want to see, as well as working like a VCR and recording scheduled programming, popping up with viewing suggestions, and one of my favorite features: it can skip through commercials.

But TiVo has also worried me because of the company's open intention to distribute commercial marketing materials through those cute TiVo boxes and because of widely-known privacy issues (the box collects information about your viewing habits and sends it to the parent-company periodically) that have spurred a Federal Trade Commission investigation.

After a software-upgrade last year allowed TiVo boxes to provide banner-advertising (yep, just like the web), I started to wonder whether the benefits of the box weren't about to be outweighed by its flaws.

Well, now we know. The flaws win.

Just take a peek at this Businessweek article.

The folks at TiVo have come up with a new twist on the old marketing gimmick: The captive audience. Here's an example of how their new "advertainment" system works. TiVo is paid to promote a new Sheryl Crow video, so they remotely program your TiVo box to record a television special about the video. Not only can't the consumer erase the unwanted material, but it relentlessly appears in user-menus and banners.

TiVo is calling their latest innovation "a new advertising campaign that demonstrates how advertisers can leverage key functions of TiVo to transform the traditional 30-second commercial into 'advertainment' that establishes far deeper communications with consumers. . ." The problem is that there's no way to opt-out of this "communication."

I think it's a horrible perversion. If I buy the box, shouldn't I have some control over what is recorded on it? Isn't that control-issue the whole reason to buy a TiVo? The folks at TiVo have a statement about this. They say, "This branded advertainment content is stored on the TiVo hard drive, allowing consumers the freedom to access the entertainment whenever they want and return again and again. Content is recorded on reserved hard drive space and never infringes on consumers’ allotted recording hours." In other words, they have already reserved extra space for these ads, both reducing your choice of what is recorded and also reducing the amount of material that you can record.

During the Superbowl, TiVo viewers watched the Pepsi ads more than any other commercials. We know this because TiVo promoted the fact. That's right, they publicised the fact that they kept track of their viewers' actions and were selling the information.

This is from The Register, "Another marketing strategy that TiVo has already trialled but not yet introduced is expected to combinine census data with personal information supplied by the viewer to deliver targeted advertising based on location, age, gender, wealth and lifestyle."

So to sum up: When you buy a TiVo, you give them license to sell your personal information, including intimate viewing habits to marketers who will then inundate you with marketing messages that you cannot avoid and who may also use your information for even less reputable purposes.

If I have to put up with ads anyway, I'll just keep my VCR and fast-forward through commercials the old fashioned way. At least I know that my VCR isn't talking to anyone about my addiction to the Cartoon Network... er...

Posted by Andrew
May 26, 2002 04:50 PM

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OLD COMMENTS

My dad got a TiVo. they have great features, but the spyware capabilities are quite frightening. I won't use it. Besides, it has one of the worst user interfaces I've ever seen. Of course our new digital cable box is even worse as far as UI goes. And both of them are so slow at changing the friggin channel. It would be faster for me to have an old style TV with a dial, walk over across the room and change it than to use the TiVo or digital cabel box remotes to change the channel. God, I hope that Micro$oft doesn't get into this market. Then it will be even slower, harder to use, and spy on me more... which would make blue screens of death prefferable!

Posted by: TiVo Hater on May 28, 2002 01:37 PM

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Microsoft owns Ultimate TV, which is supposed to be just like Tvio. Anyone who knows anything about MS already knows not to buy that box. They own WebTV also, which is popular among otherwise computer-illiterates.

Ultimate TV has a typically hard to use MS interface, and the box, itself, is so noisy that a lot of people return it for that factor alone. It also has a bug that starts leaching hard disk space away, so your recording time goes down.

But Ultimate TV has 2 tuners so it can record 2 programs at once, which kicks tivo's ass. Tivo can only do that if it is attached to a Direct TV satellite receiver.

I can't wait until people start sueing Microsoft for all the privacy leaks in their consumer appliances!!

Sonic Blue owns ReplayTV. SB has a reputation for respecting users privacy and telling big-business to blow them. Has anyone got anything bad to say about ReplayTV?

Posted by: Confuzious on May 28, 2002 06:52 PM

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http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3186191.htm

Replay tV does not normally keep track of viewers actions, but they have been ***FORCED*** to do so under a court order from the recording industry.

The reason why is that ReplayTV not only lets users skip over commercials, but it also takes the next logical step and lets users exchance recorded programs over the internet!!

ReplayTV doesn't charge a subscription fee to get programming info and it has been hacked to let you extract the MPEGs to your computer. It KICKS ASS. So far as I know, everybody LOVES replay TV except the usual goons at the RIAA.

Posted by: Checkitt - Replay TV on May 28, 2002 07:07 PM