TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO) has formed the Interactive Direct Response Advertising Group, a new unit,  that’s part ad sales, part think tank. The DVR company said that the group will reach out to direct-response marketers and offer to educate them about the challenges they face from time-shifting devices in general, and secondly, how TiVo can help their campaigns. The group will be headed by Robert Barnett, who joins TiVo as a senior director; he previously was a senior marketing consultant to infomercial producer Guthy-Renker.  Barnett is also charged with handling TiVo’s relationship with Worldlink Ventures, a direct-response ad sales rep for TiVo’s interactive ad platform.

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Over the past few years, TiVo has attempted to assuage the view among much of the ad industry that the DVR is a threat by introducing a variety of interactive marketing initiatives, such as its long-form opt-in ad solution Showcase. Still, even on its site, TiVo concedes that 70 percent of TV commercials are fast-forwarded in homes with a DVR. Release.