TiVo Brings Amazon.com Shopping to Television

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While this isn’t exactly the TiVo+Amazon announcement I was hoping for (that’d be HD Amazon video downloads), Amazon customers with broadband-connected Series 2 or Series3/TiVo HD units will now have the ability to initiate product purchases – triggered via in-show advertising overlays or search:

Starting today, TiVo will launch the new service to consumers by merchandising products related to several high profile shows, including but not limited to The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Colbert Report, and Burn Notice. Consumers will also be able to use TiVo’s Universal Swivel Search to easily explore and buy products associated with their favorite shows, movies, actors, and directors, directly from the television set

10 thoughts on “TiVo Brings Amazon.com Shopping to Television”

  1. Thanks for the pics Dave. The swivel search tie-in works for me, but more pop-ups while watching a program sounds a bit depressing. If they only appear during commercial breaks I can live with it, but if thumbs up to buy now appear over feature content, then I’m going to be annoyed.

  2. I’m biting my tongue until I see it in action… If it does indeed appear during feature content (and with audible notification?), it’ll set a bad precedent. I’m wondering if they’d do ‘Buy Season 1 on DVD’ during the intro or credits to avoid that? The Oprah book club placement seems obvious… But we’ll see.

  3. I think that’s kinda cool.

    If I am watching a movie on regular TV and its all edited and censored ( I think I saw Taxi Driver on regular TV once, so many edits and bleeps, it was nonsense ) I can look it up on Tivo and buy it on DVD. If I had a TiVo I would use this new Amazon thing at least a couple of times…

    …if for anything else to order beer and munchies from http://fresh.amazon.com

    ;)

  4. I have been saying it for the last year (like many others) that TiVo needed to go down this path with Amazon, THE biggest e-retailer there is.

    Now of course the men who love TiVo will no doubt flip out at the idea of more advertising invading their space, but for women, I am sure this will turn into a pretty big deal.

    I told my wife about this deal this morning, and the first thing she said was: “Thats going to be dangerous”.

    The potential for TiVo isn’t really behind the interactive ads IMO, but from whatever product-browsing menu they create that interacts with Amazon’s online site (which is endless). I have no doubt that if my wife had access to browsing and endless list of products on a big-screen TV while sitting on a coach (verses staring at a little PC screen) she will go with the big-screen.

    And if they offer little video clips of certain featured products (in HD) that will be another bonus for TiVo and the retailers.

    The interactive add stuff is just icing…its a gimmic, and hopefully is no different than the thumbs up feature of today that occurs only during advertisements.

    The big ticket will be the browsing menu.

  5. This is sad. Who doesn’t have a computer these days, which is infinitely easier to actually buy things from then trying to navigate around some silly amazon page with a peanut remote?

    I wish Tivo would try to come up with something useful, or cutting edge, rather than trying to come up with creative ways to serve content. I have a computer. If I want to buy something I’ll use the internet. Otherwise, quit trying to stall and come up with a revamped interface, or speed up the existing one, or innovate in some fashion. Any fashion.

    But enough with the Amazon.com stuff…..sheesh.

  7. TiVoStephen just posted a clearer explanation of the new advertising deal at TCF:
    ——————–
    With that out of the way, here’s what you’ll see with the new feature launching today.

    * For Burn Notice, Oprah’s Book Club, and a few other shows, at the conclusion of the show you’ll see a message in the delete dialog box allowing you to purchase related products. (These are similar to existing messages in the delete dialog box.) More shows will come in the future.
    * Each week we’ll create a showcase for upcoming talk shows allowing you to purchase related products.
    * Each week we’ll create a showcase about newly released books, DVDs and CDs.

    The last two items you’ll see next week.

    I’m very excited about this new feature — it’s long been high on my wishlist of things that I want when I watch TV, and I’m glad we’ve released this new feature for our customers.

    Any questions, please let me know!

    Best regards,
    Stephen
    ———————-
    http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6505716#post6505716

  8. Thanks for cross-posting that, Cassidy. Good info and possibly not as intrusive as we had anticipated. However, this doesn’t explain how real-time ads will be presented. From the press release: “whether the viewer is watching live or recorded”

  10. “* Each week we’ll create a showcase for upcoming talk shows allowing you to purchase related products.
    * Each week we’ll create a showcase about newly released books, DVDs and CDs.”

    That might actually make me want to look at the Showcase section more.

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