Born to binge: TiVo BOLT lets you skip commercials by pressing a button
TiVo today has introduced the TiVo BOLT, which will allow viewers to skip whole commercial sections by pressing a button.
Skipping commercials on DVR has become an art – waiting until one sees the first sign of a show’s return before quickly pressing play. The BOLT eliminates such a useless art and it is not tiptoeing around the sensitivities of advertisers to do so: the title of the release the company sent out about the BOLT was “Give Commercials the Finger.”
The skipping feature, called SkipMode, comes on the heels of TiVo’s annual binge-watching report. The company understood that this was how its customers were more and more consuming content, and to its credit, it productized it quickly. Combined with QuickMode, which enables customers to watch recorded shows 30% faster without audio distortion, the BOLT is a binger’s dream.
“The TiVo BOLT arrives at a time of piqued interest in both connected devices and commercial avoidance,” said Tom Rogers, TiVo’s President and CEO. “The clear demand of consumers is for a TV experience that quickly delivers them exactly what they want the instant they turn on the screen. BOLT is a game changer that will remind people of how they felt the first time they experienced digital recording.”
Another pain point that BOLT attempts to solve is the rigmarole viewers go through to find their favorite programming. Did I record the show? Is it on my cable provider’s video on demand servie? No, wait, the show is exclusive to an OTT platform. The BOLT takes TiVo’s popular search feature and applies it to all a subscriber’s channels and streaming providers to make content discovery (and consumption) quicker.