Google pushes 'sponsored content' to some Android TV devices

David Matthews

Posts: 437   +88
Staff member
Facepalm: Many Android TV owners are reporting sponsored ads being shown on their home screens. Google says this is a "pilot" to "engage the user community." Most of the users just want it off their expensive TVs.

Owners of certain Android TV devices including Sony smart TVs, Nvidia Shield, and Xiaomi Mi Box 3 have noticed ads appearing on the home screen according to XDA Developers. The ads seemed to have appeared following an Android TV update.

The Android TV update started displaying ads under the "Promotional Channels" title in the launcher. Not only were users not notified of this change, there wasn't a way to disable the ads until Reddit user Felisens figured out how to do it. It basically involves uninstalling the updates for the "Android TV Core Services" app. This allows you to either delete the ads from the homescreen or disable them from the channel settings page. Unfortunately, the ads return after the TV is restarted.

Google later sent a response to XDA Developers saying:

"Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the entertainment experience at home. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we’re running a pilot program to surface sponsored content on the Android TV home screen."

Sony's support page says that the purpose is "to help you discover new apps and contents for your TV." It also suggests creating a Restricted Profile with the apps you want to use in order to keep the ads from appearing in the home menu.

While it is understandable because Google's core business is selling advertisements, it's a bit disconcerting that this would randomly show up in Android TV without first alerting users and without a clear way of disabling the ads. One of the TVs with this update is the Sony 900F, a $1,000 television receiving ads as if it subsidizes the cost of the TV.

Astute TechSpot readers will remember that Samsung did something similar back in 2015 when they also inserted unwanted ads on their smart TVs. Vizio had to pay $2.2 million last year for surreptitiously tracking viewers' habits and selling it to advertisers. Vizio is still doing that today, it just has to let you know now.

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This kind of crap is why a TV, for me, will never be anything but a monitor for my HTPC. Unless these sets were sold with the knowledge of the buyer that they would be presented ads, pretty much without their control, as a condition on the purchase price of the TV, then gagme is bound to encounter a lawsuit because of this, or, hopefully, the FTC will come down hard on them.

Perhaps Zucky was right in asking the government to regulate the tech industry especially if they are going to pull crap like this. IMO, they are way out of line with this.
 
This kind of crap is why a TV, for me, will never be anything but a monitor for my HTPC. Unless these sets were sold with the knowledge of the buyer that they would be presented ads, pretty much without their control, as a condition on the purchase price of the TV, then gagme is bound to encounter a lawsuit because of this, or, hopefully, the FTC will come down hard on them.

Perhaps Zucky was right in asking the government to regulate the tech industry especially if they are going to pull crap like this. IMO, they are way out of line with this.

Nothing is going to happen in this administration. Rallying against the big tech companies censoring him is half his existence.
 
Good that they showed their true color when the concept of Android tv is taking off. Companies can make modified OS without Google BS.

PS : Incidentally, another of their product, Chromecast is crap when it comes to stream quality and speed. I regret buying it and as an added bonus its resets its volume to MAX everytime you turn on the TV. Its an smart device that can't even remeber volume level! In 2019!
 
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I'm just wondering are there others like me that really really really really hates commercials, most news agencies, 99% of tv shows, ads on the internet, etc? It's my pet peeve and honestly it's been 5-8 years that I haven't sat down to spend at most 5 mins on cable tv. AdBlock has helped me well on the internet and most importantly YOUTUBE.

This news just makes my blood boil with force fed ads trying to craw it's way back into our daily lives!
 
Whats funny is the sony Oreo update, FROM NOVEMBER, has broken HDMI ARC, dolby vision among many other issues and specifically for me YoutubeTV playback. But they rolled out this update last week to push adds instead of a fix for any of the above issues.

Just another reason I burried my sony remote and exclusively use the roku ultra stick with power and volume buttons
 
I'm just wondering are there others like me that really really really really hates commercials, most news agencies, 99% of tv shows, ads on the internet, etc? It's my pet peeve and honestly it's been 5-8 years that I haven't sat down to spend at most 5 mins on cable tv. AdBlock has helped me well on the internet and most importantly YOUTUBE.

This news just makes my blood boil with force fed ads trying to craw it's way back into our daily lives!
For me, most (I should really say all) advertising is garbage, and I also hate it.

Not only that, but it seems that no one is really sure that advertising works. There are people that say targeted advertising, that is, if you own a restaurant in a city in a particular neighborhood, and you advertise in some form in that neighborhood, your advertising may be effective - note I am not speaking about targeted internet advertising.

This article is on a study https://phys.org/news/2019-03-online-advertising.html that is about studying advertising. From the article
"We found a significant difference in the ad effectiveness obtained from randomized control trials and those observational methods that are frequently used by advertisers to evaluate their campaigns," added Zettelmeyer. "Generally, the current and more common methods overestimate ad effectiveness relative to what we found in our randomized tests. Though in some cases, they significantly underestimate effectiveness."
Personally, I would have to say that there IS an obvious benefit to advertising agencies to skew estimates of the effectiveness of advertising to the positive side because it means more profit for them, and it does not surprise me that the effectiveness of advertising is, in general, over-estimated.

That said, most ads that I see do not apply to me in any fashion. Of any that might and IF I am in the market for what is being advertised, I will research that product in depth before I make a decision to buy. As I see it, one cannot be too careful of marketing claims because it is the job of advertising and marketing to make a product look like it is superior to other products when the truth may be significantly different, and the claims made in advertisements may be exaggerated, to say the least.

For me, uBlock origin kills pretty much all U-Tub ads. I sometimes turn it off, and I am surprised at how much advertising there is and pleased to see that it prevents me from seeing things that I would never consider buying.

The one thing that I absolutely hate in TV advertising - most of which I skip over - are all the commercials that try to make the latest cell phones look sexy.
For instance:
To be honest with you, with the pandering that this commercial does, I will NEVER buy an iPhone. I find this commercial completely laughable.

In fact, within the past month, I bought a phone, and I went with Motorola only after researching it. No ads influenced my decision; rather, it was reviews from tech and phone oriented sites along with a 1/2-off sale price that most influenced my choice. After getting the phone an using it for a short while, I also bought one for my wife - also on sale at 1/2 off.

Admittedly, my price point was low ~$100 and I ended up spending twice that, but still commercials like the above dissuade me from even considering any product, not just phones, that use such tactics.
 
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The one thing that I absolutely hate in TV advertising - most of which I skip over - are all the commercials that try to make the latest cell phones look sexy.
For instance:
To be honest with you, with the pandering that this commercial does, I will NEVER buy an iPhone. I find this commercial completely laughable.

LOL dude, look closer. That’s not a commercial. Some dude made a fake ad about an iPhone 11. No such thing.
 
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That's what drives me crazy that and being spoon fed ads & commercials. The average person doesn't need that shi* shoved in his/her face we can search, research & do whatever is necessary to get what we want.

I also have OCD and ADHD and I turned ad block plus and origin blocker off and wow most sites were filled with garbage.
 
LOL dude, look closer. That’s not a commercial. Some dude made a fake ad about an iPhone 11. No such thing.
Fixed that for you. Your point?

Their real commercials are still total pandering :poop:, and the fake I found simply points out the exact same thing I did.

I'm not a crApple fanboy - just in case you have not noticed.
 
Here's a Galaxy S10 commercial

And another real iPhone commercial

I think both of these, and the correction to my other post, emphasize my point.

Neither of these make me want to buy either product.

Just sayin' :innocent:
 
I think that the only way a company CAN force me to watch sponsored content is when they PAY some part of the TV cost.
After that I will decide whether to have a discount with unswitchable ads or pay the full price for a device that should work the way I want it to work.
In this case - there's always a choice and free will :)
 
Here's a Galaxy S10 commercial

And another real iPhone commercial

I think both of these, and the correction to my other post, emphasize my point.

Neither of these make me want to buy either product.

Just sayin' :innocent:
Dude I totally agree with you. All these ads are just selling a lifestyle to Millennials with apparently too much disposable income. I’d love to see The Onion try to parody them as I doubt they could make them any more absurd.
 
This kind of crap is why a TV, for me, will never be anything but a monitor for my HTPC. Unless these sets were sold with the knowledge of the buyer that they would be presented ads, pretty much without their control, as a condition on the purchase price of the TV, then gagme is bound to encounter a lawsuit because of this, or, hopefully, the FTC will come down hard on them.

Perhaps Zucky was right in asking the government to regulate the tech industry especially if they are going to pull crap like this. IMO, they are way out of line with this.

I have to agree. I wonder how long it will be before half the services we pay to use ad-free start featuring ads... The same thing that happened with original pay tv... It's now a paid service flooded with ads....
 
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