TiVo has pulled the plug on their PayPerPost advertising program.
Following this forum thread, it appears that TiVo did intend to have a 5 second “bumper” on each video indicating it was a paid/sponsored clip – either TiVo or PayPerPost dropped the ball in delivering (and explaining) that asset to participants in a timely fashion. Regardless, later in the thread, notice that all participants have been instructed to pull any/all posts and YouTube videos off the net.
I’ve been in touch with TiVo’s PR agency (and TiVo) on this issue several times over the last 30 hours or so. I truly believe this was an honest error in judgment on TiVo’s part while exploring new ways to promote themselves online. I give them credit for listening to the feedback (Davis, Megazone, Read/Write Web, Valleywag) and responding immediately by killing the program.