The move embodies how ads are a growing and virtually inescapable part of the TV-viewing experience—even when you’re not watching anything.
As you might have expected, LG didn’t make a big, splashy announcement to consumers or LG TV owners about this new ad format. Instead, and ostensibly strategically, the September 5 announcement was made to advertisers. LG appears to know that screensaver ads aren’t a feature that excites users. Still, it and many other TV makers are happy to shove ads into the software of already-purchased devices.
LG TV owners may have already spotted the ads or learned about them via FlatpanelsHD, which today reported seeing a full-screen ad on the screensaver for LG’s latest flagship TV, the G4. “The ad appeared before the conventional screensaver kicks in," per the website, “and was localized to the region the TV was set to.”
LG has put these ads on by default, according to FlatpanelsHD, but you can disable them in the TVs’ settings. Still, the introduction of ads during a screensaver, shown during a pause in TV viewing that some TVs use as an opportunity to show art or personal photos that amplify the space, illustrates the high priority that ad dollars and tracking have among today’s TVs—even new top-of-the-line ones.
The addition of screensaver ads that users can disable may sound like a comparatively smaller disruption as far as TV operating system (OS) ads go. But the incorporation of new ad formats into TV OSes’ various nooks and crannies is a slippery slope. Some TV brands are even centered more on ads than selling hardware. Unfortunately, it’s up to OS operators and TV OEMs to decide where the line is, including for already-purchased TVs. User and advertiser interests don’t always align, making TV streaming platforms without third-party ads, such as Apple TV, increasingly scarce gems.
You guys are going about this all wrong. All you gotta do is connect your smart tv to the internet. Don’t use pihole. Let your tv communicate exactly how it wants to. Then buy some DVDs of local indy pro wrestling. The kind where women staple each other with staple guns, and smash light tubes over each others heads and bleed profusely.
Now…why would you do this? Because advertisers HATE advertising with pro wrestling. They also have nothing TO advertise for women with bloody faces, and broken noses.
Let THAT data get back to them. Who’s going to advertise to the guy who watches pro-wrestling from a high school gym where women leave pools of blood on the ground??? If everyone did this, for 10 hours a day, advertisers would deem the American market not worth the money to advertise to.
This plays with the idea of data poisoning for the advertisers. Maybe there are some actual practical options for this regarding TVs. The idea was already implemented on PCs for example in the form of browser extension - Ad Nauseam by some professor lady. Maybe it could be expanded upon in the context of TVs.
The fabled HTPC is a fix that few people know exists for a problem that few people know they can do anything about.
Anything other than the native TV experience. I use a Nvidia shield personally.
It’s not perfect but at least I don’t get ads for anything other than a few Disney shows in a small bar
I pirated for a long time, and even though I had(have) large media libraries and the home server capacity to manage everything just fine, I stopped.
Not sure when, or why, I’m guessing a service broke and I just said fuck it, I already have Prime+Netflix, and that was years ago at this point.
Netflix’s password policy and Amazon showing adds had me spin them up again, and even migrate over to Jellyfin because Plex is just another enshitified privacy nightmare.
Which was a pleasant surprise, because the last I tried Jellyfin years ago, it was not worth the hassle. Also, Plex wasn’t nearly as bad as it is now.
To swing this back around to this article, I’m betting eventually they’ll force their TVs online by disabling features, capabilities, or even the device itself, if it’s not phoning home.
Not only do I use pi-hole, my so called smart TV never connects to the Internet in my household. Hell, I don’t buy any smart devices period.
Depends on the device and the usage. “Smart devices” can encompass a lot of things.
“Smart” devices are getting increasingly difficult to avoid in many products categories.
Try buying a non-smart TV without going to high cost commercial/industrial models.
Don’t connect the wifi and use an external device. Have no issues with my now lobotomized screen.
Where are all the hackers out there that have the skills to crack a TV to load something open source? They’re computers. There has to be a way to jailbreak/root then.
Sure, it’s being done. Xiaomi TVs have custom ROMs available, and I’m sure a bunch of others. Thing is, state of the art TVs are are not exactly cheap, and you need one to hack it in the first place. Most hackers do it for free, so they can’t exactly go on a spending spree.
