TiVo Launches Ad Feature in Effort to Widen Its Market

TiVo Inc. on Monday introduced a feature that lets television viewers send personal information directly to advertisers when they see certain commercials, a move designed to open up TiVo’s technology to more markets.

The move underscores advertising’s importance to the future of TiVo. It comes a few years after TiVo’s introduction sent a chill through the ad sector with technology that let TV watchers skip over ads.

TiVo will now give advertisers direct access to viewers who are interested in their wares. The maker of digital video recorders says the upgrade lets about 1 million of its Series 2 stand-alone subscribers instantly respond to specially encoded advertising. However, TiVo says the changes will not affect the way users view shows and skip ads, and will not force them to watch any ads they choose to ignore.

Under the new system, consumers can select an option to tell TiVo to release their contact information to an advertiser. For example, after watching an ad for an automobile, users can use the remote control to request a brochure be sent to their home.

“Advertising is a substantial growth area,” said Kimber Sterling, director of advertising and research sales at TiVo. “It is not a material revenue for us yet.”

TiVo says TV advertisers are anxious for new ways to reach TV watchers and insist that viewers enjoy special ads.

Also, ads embedded with special “tags” will pop up as small pictures, with branded logos, even when users fast-forward though ads. The system will be launched with campaigns from General Motors Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s WB TV network.

Shares of TiVo rose 12 cents to $7.32.