Do the youngs (20 or younger) just accept having advertising as part of the OS of their TV set?

I am officially an old man (41). Don't worry, it will happen to you too. Unless you're not a man, in which case you will (hopefully) eventually be an old woman or non-binary person.

I feel like I'm still pretty flexible in accepting new things and I'm definitely not one of those people who can only enjoy video games or other media from my youth (music is the toughest) but one thing that bugs the hell out of me is that my TV flashes ads on the screen when I turn it on. This is a mid-price LG set from 2021, so not some cheapo set where you get what you pay for, and I feel like most brands do it these days. I kept my old Samsung disconnected from the Internet so it wouldn't do that, but this set is new enough that it's still getting firmware updates and I want the ones that improve performance or otherwise make the experience better so it's on my Wifi network.

I remember the 1980s when a TV set was just a TV set. It displayed inputs from an antenna or a VCR or a Nintendo and that was it. There was no software or OS internal to the TV beyond maybe the very basics for setting things like brightness or color contrast (though I saw sets where those were physical analog knobs you turned.)

As TVs advanced they got fancier and started having firmware that could be updated and then we got "Smart" TVs, which pretty much all TVs are now, but now they've gone beyond that and started inserting licensing agreements to use the TV and monitoring stuff and, worst of all, advertising. If I turn my TV on because I want to play a few minutes of PS5 before doing something I do not want to spend 20 seconds waiting for your goddamned advertising to clear so I can see the HDMI switcher menu. It drives me insane. You charged me about $1,500 for this thing, you should not be trying to squeeze extra cash from me through mandatory ads (I'm fine with optional ad supported streaming apps or whatever on the TV as long as I can just use it as a TV and select my input.)

It's to the point where it makes me angry every time I turn the set on. It feels like if I owned a pair of underwear and I had to listen to a 15 second ad every time I put them on. I bought this thing and paid a lot for it. IT's mine. You, the manufacturer, should not get to use it to harass me.

I know at least some other olds feel the same but I'm curious if youngs just accept that this is the way the world works. You buy shit, pay full price, and then it advertises to you because corporations get to do whatever they want and don't owe you shit. I can't get over it. I've always hated ads and I loved when streaming came around because I could just pay money not to see advertisements when watching TV, but it feels like now we're in an even worse world where shit you pay for gets to advertise to you on your dime (it uses my internet and electricity) and there's nothing you can do because all the corporations just do that now.

Just disconnect it from the internet.

@kamakazie: As I explained it's a newish TV and I want the firmware updates, which are still rolling out. Those can make real improvements to how the TV functions.

I wonder if this only effects TV's from the last couple years. I have an LG OLED from 2018, and the closest thing to an ad that I get is a notice in the top right corner advertising 3 free months of Apple TV. I think the TV still gets updates too. I guess there's one thing I won't be excited about when it comes time to replace this panel. Lol @ your advertising underwear.

@spacemanspiff00: The notices flashing on screen are what I'm talking about! In the model I have it's a banner on the bottom and it covers up the menu showing what HDMI port your TV is set to.

But I get more than just the Apple TV one. I get like 3 in a row with various notices I don't care about. No I do not want to watch Anaconda with Ice Cube on an ad supported streaming app, I WANT TO PLAY GLEYLANCER LIKE AN OLD MAN SHOULD!

@bigsocrates: That suuuucks. The apple ad I get is a small white box and has only happened a few times, and it doesn't intrude on anything. Sounds like yours are unavoidable and intrusive at all times. I wonder if there's a setting somewhere for that.(Not bloody likely.)

Fuuuck now I'm wondering how long till its a subscription to remove the ads from your own TV.

Dear Telus, I'm not so sure "the future is friendly."

I keep mine disconnected from the internet most of the time. I'll plug it in every once in a while to get firmware updates, but it's not necessary to have it connected at all times since I use a fire stick for streaming stuff rather than the TV OS.

This sounds like another dystopian American thing

Don't get this in the UK

Connect it to the internet once a month, check for updates, then disconnect it.

My TV has never been connected to the internet for this reason. It has an Xbox plugged in for streaming purposes.

And, yeah, this is an aspect of our future that I hate. The struggle to keep ads out of my house and devices just keeps getting more and more difficult.

Edit: for the actual question, I actually have no idea. TV ads are a thing that I, as a kid, just immediately tuned out. They came on, my eyes glazed over, then my brain turned back on when the TV did. Hopefully the same happens to the next generation and these ads are an ineffective moneyhole for the corporations that shove them into our homes.

I have a Sony TV from about 2 years ago and I kind of like the ads (I'm 35yr old by the way). Most Sony tv's are all Google tv's at this point and it's just a nice clean experience. I turn on the tv and the top banner shows an ad for the newest show on one of the many streaming apps. Cycles through maybe 6 different ads. But the thing is....it actually looks good. And it's all the newest stuff thats actually helpful. Twice now on the day a celebrity has died, instead of an ad it shows a nice "In memory of" banner.

My parents have a Samsung tv and that thing shows a never ending stream of garbage advertising.

I have an older(3-4 years?) sony 4k TV and never see ads. But I also only use input channels and never go to the "home" screen. I also don't have the wifi setup and 1-2 times a year I'll connect an ethernet to get updates and then unplug it.

@bigsocrates: So, I have the LG CX55 that the GB crew have talked about in the past. I had no idea it was gonna toss ads at me until I was playing BOTW and a goddamn sneaker ad popped up in the corner. I decided then and there to disconnect it from the internet by both turning off it's wifi, and unplugging the ethernet cord in the back, which I leave back there and connect once every few weeks for firmware. I have almost no tolerance for ads, and firmware can still be updated, it just takes doing it yourself every now and then. It helps I also got my VERY adblocked PC hooked up to it too, so I can use that as my streaming device instead of relying on the TV being connected.

Ahem, that said, I'm not a young, I'm also 41 and so I can't say if the kids don't mind ads anymore through exposure or not. I just know I despise them, all of them.

I have a fairly new TCL 4K TV "powered by" Roku and so I mostly see Roku, Tubi or other ads on the main screen. Weird, obscure services I've not considered nor been persuaded to consider. They don't overlay the actual UI at all, which I gather might be what's happening to you?

In any case, broadly speaking, I've never understood the toxic interpretation of advertising. I find it very interesting and sometimes even entertaining, the abstraction of reality of it all. I was taking an Uber earlier and heard a "Click It or Ticket" ad that was framed around a daughter calling her mother to ask about her brother's job application, only for it to quickly become a patrolman knocking on the mother's door to inform her that the brother had died in a car accident because he didn't use his seatbelt. That's pandemonium! I grant that it was novel because I'm not driving around listening to terrestrial radio all day, but generally speaking I am interested in what marketers think the public will be persuaded by.

I'm 34 and I mostly like ads. I canceled GB Premium this summer and, sure, I'm seeing a Fallout 76 ad below this text field right now which is something I'm not used to seeing on Giant Bomb after nearly a decade of premium. But it also isn't actually different at all? It's just a banner for a game I don't care much about. Put another way, I'm always fascinated when I get to the bottom of Kotaku's /new feed or whatever the URL for the old school chronological feed of their articles is and find out that Zergnet would suddenly rather tell me about sciatica than tooth decay, or the Baldwin that's married to Justin Bieber instead of the NBA player that's dating one of the Jenners. Why, how? I'll never know, but I'm on my toes again.

Advertising in itself I don't have an issue with as long as it isn't invasive and/or make the experience worse. As annoying as it may be, I'm more than willing to pay to get rid of ads especially if there is an option to do so.

That all said, my Roku TV ads are pretty minimal and never get in the way.

LOL. Four days ago I was updating my parents Sony TV. For whatever reason, maybe linking it to my Google account, it downloaded or added something BRAVIA something something. Anyway, now, all these advertisements show up out of the blue on my parenst tv - they are 84 years aold and even teh normal working TV is confusing too them.

The TV did none of the until I typed in my Google ID a few days ago. It has become one of those forehead slap moments, "why did I tello this TV anything?!" I'm hoping it will just go away as I am not there to un-do what I have done.

I was once advised by a salesman to just get a regular (not smart) TV and an Android TV box.

@ralfy: Where are you going to find a decent quality regular not smart TV in 2023 though?

Search in Google and you will find multiple links.

You can also get a cheap smart TV with a cheap Android TV box.