Quick Summary
LG appears to be rolling out pre-screensaver, full screen adverts to TVs including the range-topping LG G4. The ad platform is being promoted to third parties such as car companies and other big brands.
When you're dropping thousands of pounds on one of the best OLED TVs such as the LG G4, you don't expect it to annoy you with unsolicited advertising. But a new report, backed up by a press release from the company, says that that’s exactly what some LG TVs are doing.
The news comes from FlatpanelsHD, which found that while it was reviewing the high-end LG G4 that the TV shows full-screen adverts before the usual screensaver kicks in. Some of the ads were for LG's own services, such as its free, ad-supported TV service Channels. But LG is also opening TVs up to third-party advertisers such as car companies.
FlatpanelsHD says that the adverts are currently muted by default, but "it is unclear if this will remain the case."
Is any screen going to stay ad-free?
Engadget has looked into this in more detail and found LG enthusing about the ad spots on its LG Ad Solutions website. The firm is telling would-be advertisers that "screensaver ads drove on average 2.5 times higher lift in brand awareness... challenging the assumption that that a viewer's attention is limited once the television screen is idle."
The ads can be disabled in your TV's settings, but they're on by default. And as Engadget suggests, LG may be counting on inertia here: given that many people don't turn off motion smoothing to get rid of the "soap opera effect", it's likely that people won't turn off advertising either.
You can see the appeal to advertisers. But this does seem like yet another customer-hostile change in a marketplace that increasingly sees TV viewers as ad fodder: TV streamers are increasingly keen on pushing us to go for their ad-supported rather than their ad-free tiers, and some free services are so ad-stuffed that they're effectively unusable without ad blocking or a premium subscription.
But even in that context, this feels like a step too far to me: you're not being offered ads as a "put up with these and save £££!" deal, as the streamers promise; LG's simply taking a product you think you own and making it worse. And the tech industry has a tendency to make opt-outs disappear over time, so I'm not optimistic that this feature will remain optional for long. Still, you could always go for a set-top box instead. Just maybe not an Amazon one, as it's interested in stuffing more ads into your TV experience too.
