Since I’m a heavy DVR user, I don’t see commercials all that often. So can someone fill me in on how long this on-demand “choose your own adventure” ad tech has been around? Let me explain what happened:

1. The commercial for Sony’s Bravia TVs was on Comedy Central. In the top right corner was superimposed text “choose your ending at channel 651″ (or some channel – I don’t remember the exact one).

2. I go to the specified channel and get a selection screen to let me choose my ending, and some other links to info about the product.

3. I pick my ending, and get this:

4. I click on the URL on that page and get my commercial choice:

First of all – I’m not in the set top game, so it surprised me to see channels being reserved as on-demand for ads. Second of all – whoops. I guess it’s not all there yet.

Anyone in the know about they’re implementing this? I assume it’s a closed IP network with some html markup tuned to the box. In my case, it’s a Scientific Atlanta. Is this all proprietary? Do the providers using Motorola boxes have something completely different? What are the standards here? I’m really curious.