the revolution of tivo: are commercials a thing of the past?

While searching through Technorati to find blogs which would both spark my interest and also pertain closely to the advertising medium, I startled upon two blogs which explore the effects of Tivo on commercial advertising on television. This issue is something which I have thought about in passing but have never fully looked into its full repercussions. What I discovered is that there are many precautions that have already been put into place to ensure the success of commercials on DVR enabled televisions. Tivo and other such enabled cable devices use a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) which allows subscribers to record TV shows on the memory of the cable box. Once recorded, the user has full capability of rewinding, fast forwarding or pausing the television program. Live television also has the capability of being rewound up to thirty minutes prior to live TV, provided their Tivo was tuned to the channel for thirty minutes prior. Now that there is a clear definition of how Tivo works, there must be an explanation of how it is used. The most popular purpose of the Tivo is to record shows with the intention to fast forward through the commercials when the program is actually watched. This is the dilemna that advertisers have run into. If consumers are fast forwarding through commericals, how will they get the message. One blog offers one solution to the dilemna by merely showing a still picture for a 30 second spot in order to ensure the viewers clearly receive the message regardless of the use of Tivo. Another interesting blog explores an alternate form of advertising on Tivo using interactive media. This methodology uses the advancement of technology to make commercials interactive by allowing viewers to participate in a special promotion such as design your own lexus.