New Partnership Lets You Buy with TiVo

TiVo, the popular DVR company, is partnering with Amazon.com to allow TV viewers to buy products while watching their recorded TV shows. This is an innovative application of new technology, and a great idea all around. Customers get the benefit of simplified purchasing. Amazon.com gets the benefit of increased purchases. TiVo gets the benefit of revenue-sharing. And, most interestingly, advertisers get a substantial increase in the value of their ads. This should respond to advertiser complaints that DVRs enable users to skip ads, making the ads less valuable.

Unfortunately, there is sure to be criticism of the new service. Won’t the ability of consumers to buy advertised products right from their TV make them more susceptible to Madison Avenue brainwashing? Don’t we need paternalist government to protect these gullible Americans?

No. People can make decisions on their own. Having the option to purchase items in a more convenient way is a plus, plain and simply. Further, TiVo’s additional revenue stream should allow the company to lower its prices – just as better advertising has made free internet content possible.