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More Ads, Fewer Interruptions

Remember when TiVo was all about skipping commercials? This week, the DVR pioneer began courting Madison Avenue ad firms with a new feature enabling users to search commercials by topic. That way, TiVo president Tom Rogers told the Wall Street Journal (subscription only), viewers "don't have to watch commercials at random." Forgetting for a minute that they never really were -- really? no link between a show's expected viewers and its commercials? -- TiVo is now in the unlikely position of having to convince everyone that we actually like TV ads.

Between this and a seemingly pre-emptive foray into the television-to-internet battle, it's been strange days at TiVo since losing content-provider DirecTV.