You don’t own your Samsung TV — it’s just a Samsung billboard

Samsung puts intrusive ads on your smart TV and there’s not much you can do about it

A Samsung TV feels a lot like this (Photo by Tânia Mousinho on Unsplash)

We’re long past the point where tech companies started taking the piss with in-device advertising. Samsung, however, is taking it to a desperate new level with its smart TVs.

Samsung has long put ads in the menus of its smart TV sets. If you’ve bought a recent Samsung television, you’ll doubtless be familiar with ads such as the one below that appear in the Home menu.

Your TV menus are infiltrated by ads

These ads are a little irritating, but they don’t really get in the way. If they were the sum total of Samsung’s smart TV advertising, I’d tut and let it slide.

Recently, however, Samsung has made the ads more in-your-face. Now whenever I open the TV channel guide to see what’s on, an entire row is dedicated to an ad, pushing content off the page.

The TV guide is now just another ad opportunity