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TiVo spamming your Now Playing list?

I spotted something annoying today on my TiVo. In the past few weeks, TiVo has been ramping up the advertising efforts, loading ads for related shows/downloads whenever I delete a show and also on the main TiVo screen, but today I noticed something a bit more insidious:

The top item in my list shows 3 shows recorded, but when you go into the folder, you see four items. Turns out the fourth item is an advertising plug for some new off-road race series which doesn't exactly have much to do with a snowboarding/skiing/etc competition. That's kind of annoying. More screenshots after the jump.

Here's the "1 Pro. 1 Joe. One epic journey" screen you get when selected:

It may seem like no big deal to add another item, but I use a TiVo so that I can ignore 99% of the stuff on television and just watch the things my family enjoys. When I dropped into my folder of new shows, I instantly saw the plug for the show because it was highlighted with a star by it, but I didn't record it and it's not one of the shows I record.

The bottom line is that I don't mind general plugs for shows or products done on the main TiVo screen, at the bottom, but when it's deeply embedded in my list of shows, highlighted above the level of even the shows I tape, it's starting to go too far.

TiVo, keep the ads in general places I can choose to look at or not, but don't bury them deep within my own private selection of shows. It's annoying and feels like someone inserting spam subject lines into my inbox of email from coworkers.

by Matt Haughey January 26, 2008 in TiVo

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