• Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12 PM

After months of talking about the wonderful benefits of advertising produced especially for DVRs, TiVo yesterday launched its Product Watch option; it allows users to pick and chose among ads that, according to TiVo, are longer than those TV viewers are accustomed to seeing and generally more informative as well. General Motors and Kraft Foods are among the first advertisers to try out the new format. Similar ads already are available on video-on-demand services offered by cable operators such as Comcast, says The Wall Street Journal. "Madison Avenue and the TV industry are closely watching consumer reaction to the services. Growing availability of on-demand ads comes as marketers are scaling back their emphasis on traditional TV ads, while Web ads and DVR use become more popular. For some marketers, on-demand ads could be a new way to reach TV viewers." The TiVo service "could be a good indication of what advertising is going to be like in coming years," says David Cohen, U.S. director of digital communications at Universal McCann, a media-buying firm owned by Interpublic Group that is involved in the project. Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, predicts that viewers who are already comfortable going online to seek information about products and services will be at ease as well with the company's Product Watch feature.

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