LG has decided to add advertising to the screen savers of its televisions. An announcement that was made quite discreetly and for good reason: it will not delight its customers at all. Fortunately, it seems you can turn this off in your TV settings.
Advertising is starting to become an integral part of the business model of television manufacturers. LG is getting started with webOS, its operating system: there will be advertising on the brand’s televisions, or rather on their screen saver.
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Advertising on your TV, when you’re not watching it
As reported Ars TechnicaLG announced on September 5 that it would add advertisements to the screen savers of its televisions. Advertisements are activated on the home screen in screen saver mode, on the Content Store as well as on LG channels.
And these advertising messages have already been deployed, since the site FlatPanelsHD has already noticed its presence. This is the case on an LG G4 model, a device whose price starts at 1999 euros in its 55-inch version. Concretely, the advertising appears even before the classic screen saver is triggered.
Furthermore, there is some targeting, since the advertising was localized in the region in which the television in question was located. In addition to advertisements for LG Channels, the manufacturer’s free SVoD service (also financed by advertising), our colleagues also observed advertisements from third-party advertisers. The advertisements in question were completely silent.
Fortunately, you can opt out of these ads. To do this:
- Go to your TV settings;
- Click on “ Additional settings » ;
- Disable the “ Screen saver promotion ».
A new source of income for LG and company
The manufacturer describes this advertising format as exploiting “ screen idle time, transforming what may be perceived as downtime into a valuable engagement opportunity. » To sell advertising on its televisions, LG is calling into question “ the hypothesis that viewer attention is limited when the television screen is inactive. »
According to the LG Ad Solutions division, “ Ads on screensavers led to a 2.5x increase in brand awareness on average. » Dave Rudnick, Chief Technology Officer, says that “ 93% of viewers multitask while watching TV ».
For LG therefore, even when our television is on standby, we are on our sofa on our smartphone and we would have the freedom to see advertisements.
While Amazon and Google have long been monetizing their respective operating systems, Fire OS and Android TV, it is the turn of television manufacturers to monetize… their televisions. Advertising on screen savers represents a financial windfall that LG is trying to seize. It’s not the only one: Samsung is also using it with Tizen. Only Apple seems to refuse this with its Apple TVs.
This is reminiscent of YouTube, which has just added advertisements when you pause a video, especially on your television. The manufacturer Roku in the United States offers advertising when you are not using the HDMI ports on your television. This also recalls the concept of Telly: a free television, but which displays advertisements on a second screen.
If LG is trying to get more revenue from the TVs it sells, it’s not just for financial reasons. Televisions (including those from LG) are becoming more and more reliable and complete, in particular thanks to regular software updates. At the same time, as noted Ars Technicathe advertising market must continue to find ways to reach consumers.
And this while linear television is losing growth and many SVoD services are sold without advertising (although everyone is gradually getting started). This is why LG finds itself forced to adapt its sources of income.
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