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Samsung To Roll Out In-TV Ads To Legacy Displays Via Software Update
An anonymous reader writes: According to an insider at Samsung's growing advertising team in New York, the second-largest consumer tech manufacturer in the world is planning to retrofit older network-connected TVs to display tiled ads via a software update. The South Korean company, which has seen a 20.9% decline in television sales in Q1 of 2016 under fierce competition from China, has included 'baked' ads into the interface of its recent TV offerings, and also experimented with injecting ads into users' streamed video, transmitting voice commands to a third party -- and, ironically, battling Android over its own AdBlocking technology.
Roku/Chromecast/AppleTV/HTPC + dumb computer monitor.
Sure, you won't be able to find a 60" display but at least you'll be 100% sure that your display won't start spying on you or display unwanted things.
I purchased a new Samsung TV in December 2015 and this was not discussed as even a possibility when I chatted through options and scenarios with the store. I chose an internet-connected TV because I live in an apartment building that cannot get satellite TV, so my best option for a wider set of programming was for a net-connected TV... I took a NetFlix subscription and already had Amazon Prime.
However, for Samsung to start injecting commercials into the non-program parts of the TV [for example in the menus] would be a complete breach of the terms and conditions under which the set was purchased. It would be a bit like you purchasing a car, running it for 6 months, then being told by the manufacturer that, "Hey, we've decided your car is now a taxi. You'll have to take fee-paying passengers about when you drive. We won't ask you to change the route, but we will keep all the proceeds of the free rides you need to give."
Not happening.
In the UK at least I think this would fall fall of the "Goods and Services Act", might likely be "false advertising" [for failing to disclose the intent to push adverts], etc, etc.
Interestingly, this isn't the first time that Samsung have tried this. They did it a couple of years ago in Australia and New Zealand, where subscribers to paid network services [like NetFlix] suddenly saw crude, badly-formatted adverts appearing in the middle of (paused) Amazon Prime streaming content. There was uproad, and Samsung pulled the firmware update, hastily claiming it was pushed in error...
We might need to get ready for the same level of uproar if they try again...
Passed it a while ago. Replaced Addblock+ with Pi-hole to catch my droids at home. My Samsung TV is connected to a computer, not the Internet. I run no Windows outside occasional VMs. My Ubuntu has Gnome Panel, and scopes purged. And I no longer watch any broadcast TV or listen to radio.
But lowering my exposure has also lowered my tolerance to almost nothing. I can not watch TV when it is on at a friends house at all. And telemarketers get a rapid "fuckoff" in the first three words.
I am the future advertising has made.
not to mention all the spying features built into 'smart' tv's - you think they'd learn something!
They did... That most people are fucking idiots that will trade their privacy for a $5 off coupon.