Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Tivo Adds Pause Ads

Alviso-based digital video recorder firm Tivo has figured out a way to capitalize on people skipping advertising with its devices: charge advertisers to show ads when viewers pause their videos. Tivo said today that it has launched a new feature called Pause Menu, which allows advertisers to target their product advertising wihin the pause screen of shows recorded on the firm's DVRs. According to Tivo, the feature works with both Live and Timeshifted programs, and can be tied either to a specific TV show or through keyword matching to program descriptions. Tivo said it has already signed on Mercedes-Benz USA and Twentieth Century Home Entertainment as advertisers on the service. Tivo said the ads display a single line of text in its pause menu.