TiVoCast Garners First ‘Interactive Sponsor’ With Symantec

Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 by MegaZone

Symantec becomes the first ‘Interactive Sponsor’ of TiVoCast content, with a move that will see them utilize Interactive Tags and Program Placement to promote their Norton product line during CNET’s TiVoCast program. This will work just as it has been used during normal recordings, with ‘Press Thumbs Up For More Info’ Interactive Tags during the program which will take the user to Norton promotional content, and return the user to the same location in the program after they’ve viewed the content. As well as a promotional link in the Keep/Delete screen at the end of the program, via Program Placement.

TiVo issued a press release touting the new partnership:

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today that Symantec, the maker of Norton security software, has signed on as the first advertiser to sponsor Interactive Advertising during CNET’s TiVoCast program. As a sponsor, Symantec will utilize TiVo’s Interactive Tags and Program Placements for the Norton product line within CNET’s popular weekly 15-minute TiVoCast program, which provides viewers with the latest news and reviews in technology and consumer electronics.

See the full release for more details.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
This entry was posted in Press Release, TiVo and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Jenny

    Beware the Gold Star ads! I am still steaming about this… My son had just finished watching a recorded episode of Little House on the Prairie when a gold star advertisment for Cosmopolitan magazine appeared asking to click here to find out Men’s top 10 sexy secrets. Of course, being curious, he clicked on it and was given two options: No, I’m sexy enough, and Yes, I want to know the secrets (or something like that). He clicked Yes and a screen came up saying thank you for subscribing to the magazine!

    When I called Tivo, they were kind enough to turn off the gold stars on my system, but could not do anything about the purchase. I am currently dealing with Cosmopolitan about this.

    This is just going way too far. I had no idea that Tivo would abuse my credit card information in this way. Let alone the fact that my nine year old was subjected to this adult-themed advertising after a children’s show!

  • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

    Yeah, someone really dropped the ball there with the ad targeting. It is probably done by some kind of keyword, but there should be some kind of rating match as well “This add can only be shown on TV-14 or higher content”, etc. (If there is, it seems to need improvement.)

    I’ve said before that I think TiVo should require a PIN entry for ALL purchases, orders, subscriptions, etc, on the system specifically to avoid situations like this. They can even make it configurable so those who don’t feel they need it can turn it off. But it should be on and set to some default, like 00000, out of the box.