You May Not Be Able To Skip Commercials On TiVo Anymore

You may now be forced to watch commercials even on your TiVo amidst steps being taken to solve what is being called commercial avoidance. According to Tom Rogers, head of TiVo Inc. the recent deal with NBC Universal is a big step towards solving “commercial avoidance”

Rogers made this statement in an investor meeting. In November, a multiyear partnership was announced between NBC and TiVo. A part of this partnership was interactive advertising targeted at consumers who skipped advertising. NBC also was to subscribe to TiVo’s commercial ratings service.

According to estimates, 20 million homes had DVR’s and over the next 3-4 years this could be 50 to 60 million homes. Rogers also said that Comcasts rollout of set top boxes that use TiVo DVR technology was positive. There is one more similar deal with Cox Communications in the pipeline.

One other objective of TiVO is international expansion according to Rogers. TiVO now has a presence in Canada, Mexico and Taiwan. They are going to enter Australia this year as well.

In TiVo’s ongoing patent litigation against Echostar Communications, they expect a positive ruling according to Rogers.