IP: more on tivo

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 12:36:23 -0700
From: Brad Templeton <brad () templetons com>
To: farber () cis upenn edu



I think the battle between the PVR like the Tivo and the studios is going to
be long and "interesting."   I've written an essay on some elements of the
future of TV advertising, and a possible solution that minimizes the DRM
they are pushing for.


    www.templetons.com/brad/tvfuture.html


A summary of observations from the essay:

    1) Watching TV ads is a terrible deal.  The advertiser pays the network
       about a penny to expose you to an ad.  You're selling an hour of
       your attention for $1.20, a small fraction of minimum wage.

    2) At the same time, if nobody watches the ads (and with PVRs nobody
       does) they need to find another way to make their money.

    3) Their main plan now is DRM all the way to the monitor, so that nobody
       can make a PVR that skips ads without their permission

    4) My alternative is to let us pay for TV, and give people a discount
       all the way down to free if they do watch the ads.

    5) To make sure you watch, no need for draconian controls, just ask a
       simple multiple choice question on the remote after viewing the ad.
       Since answering a question improves ad memory retention immensely,
       you would need to watch far fewer ads to get your TV free if you
       want it free.  If you don't want it free -- watch no ads.



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