• The New York Times, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 9:30 AM

TiVo will introduce a "product purchase" feature today in partnership with the Internet retailer Amazon.com. Owners of TiVo video recorders will see, in TiVo's various onscreen menus, links to buy products like CDs, DVDs and books that guests are promoting on talk shows like "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The Late Show With David Letterman" and "The Daily Show."

The move highlights TiVo's attempt to shift from being a creator of set-top boxes, competing with copycat devices, to being an advertising innovator that is trying to develop advertising technologies for the television industry. If a viewer chooses to buy an advertised item during a broadcast, TiVo records the rest of the program so the viewer can easily return to it after the purchase. TiVo users will also be able to save their intended purchases in their Amazon account and return to the site later to complete the transaction.

TiVo and Amazon have an existing relationship. Since last year, owners of broadband-connected TiVos have been able to download movies and televisions shows to their set-top boxes from Amazon's digital video store, now called Amazon Video on Demand. The two companies have not disclosed the financial details of their newest deal, but in general Amazon's affiliates get a 15% slice of a sale when a customer they referred makes a purchase on the site.

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