I first heard about this a couple days ago, but delayed posting anything until I was sure it was true. Well, the rumors have now been confirmed by the company.
TiVo began testing interactive advertising tools during the weekend as it looks to appease companies wary of users’ ability to skip over ads.
The company confirmed late Monday that it released the first in a series of advertising features to a random and limited number of subscribers to the digital-video recorder service. The first test feature–a tag–pops up on the screen when a viewer is fast-forwarding through an advertisement.
If viewers press the thumbs-up or select button during the half second the tag is displayed, they will be redirected to a menu that leads to more information about the advertised product. The tag takes up about 25 percent of the screen, according to the company. TiVo said it is working with only one advertiser, a movie studio, on the trial balloon.
This smells of desperation. It’s yet another reason why once-loyal TiVo users, including myself, are turning elsewhere.
Of course, the undocumented 30-second skip feature would allow you to work around this annoyance. But because it’s undocumented and definitely unofficial, this shortcut could be disabled at any time.
Update: You can see a couple screen shots of these pop-up ads at the TiVo Community forum. (Via PVRBlog)
Ed Bott 
Ed – I agree completely.
I’ve been a TiVo customer going on 5 years. I’ve often said that TiVo is better than color TV and I meant it. TiVo has many fine features, but the absolute top feature for me is the ability to skip commercials. If TiVo disables 30-second skip after adding this “feature”, I WILL dump their box and buy something else.
Dittos on the message Carl left. I go to movies, ads are splayed in my face for 20 minutes. I use TiVo, ads are thrown in my face. Why dont I just open my bank accounts and provide my credit cards to corporate america ?
TiVo will see the subscriber churn turn into a sunami.