TiVo and Amazon Join Forces

TiVo has a new project: apparently, the company wants to turn the television remote control into a tool for buying the products being advertised and promoted on commercials and talk shows, as The New York Times reports.

In a partnership with Amazon.com, TiVo is introducing a Product Purchase option. “Owners of TiVo video recorders will see, in TiVo’s various onscreen menus, links to buy products like CDs, DVDs and books that guests are promoting on talk shows like ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ ‘The Late Show With David Letterman’ and ‘The Daily Show,’” the report said.

The move is a sharp one, aimed to prevent TiVo from succumbing to the me-too, free DVR units that cable companies are packaging with their monthly plans. Instead, the new service will help shift the popular company toward an advertising company that develops new revenue streams for the television industry, the report said. And we thought all of their mobile initiatives were going to save the company; oh well.

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