Samsung Smart TV update forces users to see ads

[Derouiche™]

Once upon a time, goods and services in the United States were exchanged on a straightforward basis: You bought a product, the manufacturer sold a product, and everybody went home happy. Over the last decade we’ve seen companies move away from this model, from so-called ‘freemium’ games to the widespread availability of social media. These sorts of arrangements tend to be explained as “If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.” Device manufacturers like Samsung, however, obviously prefer a very different model — one in which you’re actually the product, whether you’re paying them for anything or not.

According to a new report at AdAge, a recent Samsung Smart TV update now requires that consumers view advertising if they want to use the device’s hardware — hardware they’ve presumably already paid several hundred dollars for the privilege of using. The ads are reportedly small at first, but cover 25-75% of the screen once highlighted. At Reddit, users are scarcely excited by the new change, with one writing: “Ads are a large reason why I ditched cable, the viewing experience wasn’t worth the money with one-third of the broadcast time filled with ads.” NPD VP and analyst Stephen Baker told AdAge he thought the move risked putting Samsung on consumers’ bad side in the long run if they opt to take their buying dollars elsewhere.

“We are always looking for ways to enhance the TV watching experience,” a Samsung spokeswoman told Ad Age in an emailed statement. “Users can opt-out of these interest based ads at any time in the settings menu of their televisions and still get all of the smart features of their TVs.”

But note the phrasing. Users can’t opt-out of ads, no, they can simply opt out of interest-based ads, which means Samsung doesn’t stop showing you advertising — it just stops showing you ads it attempts to categorize into areas you’re more likely to like. It’s not a move that’s going to do Samsung products any favors, or help it climb out of the negative hits it took following the Note 7 fiasco. It’s also not something that sits particularly well with us given the problems and repeated lies Samsung told about the security practices on its Smart TVs.

Here’s a smart idea. Use a different media solution entirely, buy a dumb television (or simply leave the “smart” features deactivated), and tell Samsung to pound sand. You already bought the TV. You didn’t sign up to be buried in advertising alongside it.