The Demise of TiVo
TiVo has released the first in a series of new advertising tools today. Basically, if you try to skip an advert now, it fills 25% of the screen with a popup balloon type advert.
This begs a couple of questions:
1. If I'm fast-forwarding through an advertisement, isn't that a clear indication I'm not interested in the product and therefore unlikely to press a button asking for more information?
2. Aren't popup adverts the spawn of Satan on the internet, the number one cause of complaints? And given that popup adverts sell nothing (nobody is stupid enough to click on them), why do TiVo think this annoying advertising technique will work on their boxes?
3. Do these people not learn? I guess not.
This decision was obviously made by a CEO or VP or someone high enough up in TiVo land to be so out-of-touch with reality that they seriously believe this is A Good Thing. This will inevitably be the same person, who in a couple of months time as their subscriber levels start plummetting, will ask "why are people leaving?" That's the typical MO for a VP. It's one of the prerequisites for being in that position - you must be dead from the neck up and have an inherent ability to ignore and piss off everyone below you in the company, whilst steadfastly pursuing a course which you (and only you) think is the right way. As a VP you must never ever listen to your employees or engineers. Yes - this is the beginning of a slump for TiVo. I just hope Charlie Egen doesn't get the same idea and pollute our Dish DVR with the same crap.
This begs a couple of questions:
1. If I'm fast-forwarding through an advertisement, isn't that a clear indication I'm not interested in the product and therefore unlikely to press a button asking for more information?
2. Aren't popup adverts the spawn of Satan on the internet, the number one cause of complaints? And given that popup adverts sell nothing (nobody is stupid enough to click on them), why do TiVo think this annoying advertising technique will work on their boxes?
3. Do these people not learn? I guess not.
This decision was obviously made by a CEO or VP or someone high enough up in TiVo land to be so out-of-touch with reality that they seriously believe this is A Good Thing. This will inevitably be the same person, who in a couple of months time as their subscriber levels start plummetting, will ask "why are people leaving?" That's the typical MO for a VP. It's one of the prerequisites for being in that position - you must be dead from the neck up and have an inherent ability to ignore and piss off everyone below you in the company, whilst steadfastly pursuing a course which you (and only you) think is the right way. As a VP you must never ever listen to your employees or engineers. Yes - this is the beginning of a slump for TiVo. I just hope Charlie Egen doesn't get the same idea and pollute our Dish DVR with the same crap.
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