By Victoria Stilwell
TiVo Inc. (TIVO) is pairing with eBay Inc.'s (EBAY) payment
service PayPal to offer its users a way to pay for products
featured in interactive advertisements.
The digital-video-recorder company is working with advertisers
and agencies to develop PayPal-enabled advertisements, which are
expected to begin airing during the fall 2012 television
season.
The advertisements allow TiVo users to buy products through
interactive advertisements. The purchases will then be charged to
the TiVo user's PayPal account and shipped to the address the user
has registered with the payment service for deliveries.
"In today's fragmented TV viewing world it is harder than ever
before for advertisers to reach their audiences, and it's important
to find creative ways to get in front of viewers," said Tara
Maitra, TiVo's general manager for content and media sales. "TiVo's
interactive ads allow advertisers to grab the attention of viewers
in unobtrusive ways and on the viewer's terms."
TiVo unveiled the plans during the TV of Tomorrow Show in San
Francisco.
TiVo has mostly posted losses since the second half of 2009 as
rising costs and dwindling subscriber numbers had pressured its
bottom line, however, two far-reaching settlements over the use of
TiVo's recording technology significantly boosted the company's
results in the year-ago quarter and the fourth quarter.
TiVo in May swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss as a
patent-litigation settlement padded the company's year-ago results,
but the company recorded subscriber growth.
TiVo's efforts to deploy its devices with more pay-TV operators
has helped it drive net subscription growth recently. The company
has now recorded subscriber growth for three consecutive quarters,
following a four-year streak of declining subscriber numbers.
Meanwhile, PayPal has been working with major retailers to
introduce in-store electronic-payment systems using its technology.
The payment service has helped drive growth at its parent
company.
EBay's first-quarter profit rose 20% on continued strength in
the company's payments business, and prompted the company to boost
its outlook for the year.
Shares of TiVo slipped 0.2% to $8.05 in recent trading, and
shares of eBay fell 0.6% to $40.69. TiVo's stock is off 21% during
the past 12 months, while eBay's has risen near 36% in the same
time period.
Write to Victoria Stilwell at Victoria.Stilwell@dowjones.com