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Don't they automatically search for any nearby wifi? I remember complaints about that.

Not sure if that was a Vizio thing, but I think Samsung did/does this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29219918

> Some TVs with ads actually have ads pre-loaded on them, so not connecting them isn't sufficient to defeat the ads.

This. I factory reset my Vizio a couple months ago because it was crashing a lot and I didn’t bother giving it any Internet access this time around. There are also no other WiFi networks nearby.

or use Pi-hole smartly!

A Pi-Hole can also break your TV interface, like it does with Samsung TVs after the recent updates they expect the ads to load when they don’t things get messy.

It’s pretty much a TV + a set top box these days if you want to avoid ads in day to day use with most brands now.

I think out of the major brands only Sony hasn’t been pushing ads so far at least as far as their premium models go.

This is my solution, although it sometimes feels like playing a game of Whack-A-Mole