So, they'll be covering up high-quality high-content ads with low-quality, low-content ads, and they think this is an improvement? I hope they have plenty of money for attorney's bills, since this is clearly outside of the Betamax decision. But, it's bet the company time anyway ... John Willkie -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Monty Solomon Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 8:15 AM To: undisclosed-recipient: Subject: [opendtv] TiVo: More Ads, Higher Fees Special Report: 2005 Predictions TiVo: More Ads, Higher Fees The DVR service must get more revenue from its current customer base to survive. By Phillip Swann Editor's Note: Phillip Swann, president of TVPredictions.com, is making 40 predictions for new TV technology in 2005. A new prediction will be published every weekday at TV Predictions for the rest of 2004, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Click Predictions to see a list of his 2005 forecasts to date. Washington, D.C. (November 17) -- The Los Angeles Times today reports that TiVo next year will add pop-up ads that will appear on-screen when a viewer attempts to fast-forward past a commercial. The messages will be displayed as small logos or billboards, according to the newspaper. The DVR owner will still be able to fast-forward through the spot, but not without seeing the pop-up message. The move is not a surprise, at least to me. I predicted two years ago in a Television Week column that TiVo and its rivals would resort to Internet-like pop-up ads to appease advertisers who are concerned about DVR owners skipping over commercials. At the time of my prediction, network executives and some analysts were forecasting the death of traditional TV advertising models. However, I wrote that, through pop-ups and other new methods, that the DVR would eventually deliver more advertising messages than ever before. However, for TiVo, the company's decision to add a pop-up message now has a larger implication. ... http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivoads111704.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.