Recently i had to replace my digital freeview box … prices on PVR’s (personal video recorder) were good, so i thought … spend a little more and kill two birds with one stone. Being able to record two digital channels and watch a third at the same time was clearly an advantage and of course like most PVR owners i could now fast forward through the ad breaks … sweet!
The Thompson (topuptv) box performs ok, but the biggest let down was the on screen menu. A little clunky and missing some obvious features it needed an update. The good news was like a lot of these units the firmware or operating system can be updated in the same way the device recieves digital tv.
But …
… that’s not the only upgrade i’ve been sent … top right hand side of the menu now contains a rolling banner, advertising new shows and channels coming soon. I was a little annoyed at first but then started thinking it’s a pretty clever. If people are skipping ads, where better to put them and if it means my menus and functions get better … i’m cool with that.
How long will it before before i start to get ads in that space based on the programs i watch … if i record Top Gear will i start to get Audi Banners … so the ads move from the channels to the hardware. You saw it here first.
Doc Rogers
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Jonny 31 Jan 2008
ReportI think Tivo did a similar thing.
Stephen Pirrie 31 Jan 2008
ReportI heard Tivo had a channel which just shows ads. Am I deluded? People love ads. In the right context. They talk about ads in teh pub. laugh at them in the cinema. They think, “what a load of crap” or “wow”. But they do still care when they want to give advertising time. So wouldnt it be cool if people could vote for their favourites and this would create a ranking system on the PVR ad channel show it just showcased the cream of advertising? Maybe I am deluded.