Ads on Smart TVs, really?
I recently came across a Reddit post where a user reported that his Xiaomi Smart TV made him watch a 60 second ad when switching from HDMI 1 port to HDMI 2 port. I remember wondering if ads really got to that point. As it turns out, they did.
Samsung was the first to do this
After a bit of digging, I found out that Xiaomi is not the only one pushing ads on their smart TVs. Samsung was the first culprit, back in 2015. Their TV interface was completely ad-free until a long-planned update rolled out which laced the interface with ads. AdAge reported that the ads are relatively unobtrusive until they’re highlighted by the user, in which case they can cover up about three quarters of the screen. Imagine the size of that on an 80“ 8K TV. Anyway, the change upset TV owners, many of them whom said it does not make sense to buy a very expensive product and then limit it’s user-friendliness by pushing ads. One user wrote: „Free service plus ads or paid service plus no ads, pick one Samsung.“ Of course, you can disable these ads by disconnecting the TV from the Internet, but doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of owning a smart TV?
I’m not sure how all of this is is reflected on other TVs who use other operating systems. I know that Samsung uses it’s proprietary Tizen OS and that most of the other smart TVs use Android OS. My TV at home is an ancient breed of a smart TV and it’s not connected to the Internet anyway so I haven’t seen any ads, and I haven’t seen ads on Sony and LG TVs. However, I do believe that the ads are coming to them as well. It’s just a matter of how they’ll affect everyday usage.
What kind of ads are displayed?
You can have those annoying ads that have to be watched and that cover up the entire screen. If you ask me, that’s a no-no. Many customers are tired of seeing ads and they will just get angry if they can’t enjoy their content. Then there are the ads that are unobtrusive, but still visible. Like what you see in the corner of your TV and that you can easily ignore if you’re not interested. If we have to have ads on our TVs, let them be like that. I believe that users can get used to that. Just don’t pause our content in order to display ads. I’m looking at you, Facebook and YouTube. So, there can be a way to make it work.
But can it really work?
Even though I’m into marketing, I don’t think that ads on smart TVs are a good idea. We already have ads everywhere — apps, games, every single webpage we visit, unskippable YouTube ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, they’re everywhere. If this trend continues, we won’t have any room for actual content. People get annoyed by this and they certainly aren’t happy when they see an embedded ad in the operating system of their 1000$ TV. They’ll just stop using the smart features and enjoy the TV for what it is — a huge screen to which you can plug your computer or game console if you don’t want to watch a regular program, which is in fact peppered with ads. I can get behind ads on some streaming services, but only if those services are free.
What will happen next?
Like it or not, I think that ads will arrive to all of our smart TVs sooner or later. The question is how long they’ll stay. I mean yes, we do have ads on every TV program, but the new ads will come directly to the operating systems of our TVs. If you really don’t want the ads, you have two options: a) don’t buy a smart TV, or b) don’t update your smart TV.
Sources:
Reddit — My Xiaomi TV just forced me to watch an ad
Extremetech — Samsung Smart TV Update Forces Users To See Ads
