TiVo has pulled the plug on their PayPerPost advertising program.

Following this forum thread, it appears that TiVo did intend to have a 5 second “bumper” on each video indicating it was a paid/sponsored clip - either TiVo or PayPerPost dropped the ball in delivering (and explaining) that asset to participants in a timely fashion. Regardless, later in the thread, notice that all participants have been instructed to pull any/all posts and YouTube videos off the net.

I’ve been in touch with TiVo’s PR agency (and TiVo) on this issue several times over the last 30 hours or so. I truly believe this was an honest error in judgment on TiVo’s part while exploring new ways to promote themselves online. I give them credit for listening to the feedback (Davis, Megazone, Read/Write Web, Valleywag) and responding immediately by killing the program.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of different TiVo marketing campaigns. Some of them have been great and some of them have been bombs, but TiVo has never been afraid of taking risks, especially when it comes to generating publicity. Whether it was their funeral for the VCR or their ad throwing a TV exec out a window, they’ve been able to get pretty good bang for their buck, from the social web.

Despite my normal enthusiasm for TiVo’s PR stunts, their latest campaign has been a little over the top, for even my tastes. It started in late August, when TiVo issued a press release that declared that their new TiVo HD box, had all the features that people expect from a perfect companion. When I first read the release it was so syrupy, I could barely finish it.

I even almost wrote a snarky blog post, where I was going to point out that despite their claims, I’m actually looking for something a little bit different from my “hook ups�, then the family friendly criteria that they included in the PR fluff. Things like someone who won’t freeze up on me after I had been out drinking with the boys or someone with a pair of really big hard drives or a companion that doesn’t get jealous when I play video games.

I ended up getting distracted and never wrote my post, but when I saw TiVo issue another lovefest press release, I just rolled my eyes and figured that I was in the wrong demographic to ever understand this one.

Normally, I wouldn’t have thought much more about this campaign, except while I was surfing YouTube, I came across several clips that appeared to be fan made videos expressing their excitement for the HD TiVo product. At first I actually thought that these were made by TiVo customers. There is definitely an indie feel to them. One of them actually does an amusing simulation of the world from TiVo’s perspective It wasn’t until I got to my my favorite video of the bunch that I finally figured out why there was such a sudden rush of TiVo videos on YouTube. Of all the clips out there, this is the only one that I could find, that was honest enough to at least identify that it’s part of the PayPerPost program.

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No disrespect to the court, the judges, the attorneys, or anyone else… but, man, was that boring.

Essentially, ~80 of us gathered in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for a little over an hour while EchoStar and TiVo provided oral argument in Echo’s appeal of TiVo’s lower court jury win in this ongoing DVR patent dispute. Echo’s position is that there were “claim construction issues” in regards to how three patent elements (2 hardware, 1 software) were presented. A whole lot of discussion (judges and lawyers from both sides) focused on the meaning and implication of the words separate (how, when, and physical versus logcial), source object/collection (in regards to software components), and an (is it both singular and plural).

The three judges posed some interesting questions during the proceedings: Why is the jury’s decision invalid? If the appeals court invalidates some of the claims but not all, do monetary awards and injunction terms change? (TiVo says no, Echo says yes.)

I have no inkling of what the outcome will be… and I suspect the case will be largely decided on the contents of the humongous documents (blue book from Echo, red book from TiVo) rather than these oral arguments, which seemed more about clarification.

So what happens next? Apparently, verdicts are put onto the web when they’re ready with no advance notice - Sadly, there won’t be any courtroom theatrics of thrown DVRs. (I’d come back for that!) Sounds like if the lower court’s ruling is simply affirmed, we should hear something in the next week or so. Otherwise, it could be a few months while the judges mull things over and render their decision.

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Ben Drawbaugh (who you probably know from Engadget HD) and I share a love of college football. While I was recovering Friday night, he caught South Florida’s upset of West Virginia. He also spotted a Series2 TiVo unit in the replay booth. Which is really no surprise - We’ve been hearing for years how TiVo is used in a variety of sports, both amateur and pro. And now we have visual proof!

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TiVo has just opened a v9.1 software update priority page, so drop off your TiVo Service Number (TSN) if you want in. However, those of you with Series2 units should keep in mind:

For Multi-Room Viewing to work in software version 9.1, your other DVRs must also be running software version 9.1. Please sign up all DVRs on your account and have 9.1 installed before attempting to use MRV.

Other than the updated Boolean Wishlists, there’s not much in the way of functional changes. Though… Megazone speculates that the relevant bits for TiVoToGo and Multi-room Viewing on high-def TiVos are in place. All it may require is TiVo flipping a switch on their end. Sounds reasonable to me given the timing of this software rollout and TiVo’s November target.

(via mtchamp)

TiVo and EchoStar head into the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit this Thursday to continue arguing their ongoing patent dispute. The docket is pretty tight, so the hearing should be a brief affair.

An unexpected benefit in attending the pre-DigitalLife event last week was spotting Kunal Madhukar’s badge (and the person attached). Kunal is the Bear Stearns analyst covering digital media — In fact, I’ve quoted him a few times here on ZNF. Kunal has kindly provided me with docket details and, if time permits, I may sit in on the hearing. I doubt they’ll allow mobile blogging or even photographs, but I’ll be sure to draw stick figures of the participants. As far as the case goes, Kunal believes the Final Order could take “six months or more” and finds it “difficult to handicap [the] outcome.”

I realize things appear a bit muddied on my end: EchoStar will be my employer shortly and I’m a TiVo customer… However, I don’t presume to be a patent or legal expert - which hopefully limits me to covering the facts of this landmark case without bias.

Over on TiVo Lovers, I caught news that TiVo has begun rolling out their Fall 2007 software update (9.1). Other than the advanced Boolean Wishlist searches, most of the visible enhancements appear to be pretty minor. Guess TiVoToGo, Multi-Room Viewing, and eSATA storage support for Series3/HD will be part of the “Winter” update? November’s quickly approaching…

Since I’m on the road, I hadn’t spent any time looking at TiVo system messages - but I did check last night. And as you can see from the pics, our bedroom Series2 received the 9.1 update.

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NBC has announced that they are introducing a program that will let you automatically download some of their shows to your PC. With the announcement came the latest round of TiVo doom and gloom articles, that assert that this technology will some how be able to replace a DVR. While I like that NBC is being innovative and are offering more choices to consumers, I am also skeptical about the long term prospects for this one.

I suspect that NBC is hoping to build a strong subscription base for the shows, so that they can then try and pitch companies on paying for ads by the download. There may be some advertisers that will be foolish enough to accept these arrangements, but over the long run, the advertisers will figure out why it’s doomed for failure.

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