Google TV operating system struggling to generate revenue

thestreamable.com

9 points·ksec··6 comments

TV operating systems are a crap place to put ads and for Google/Apple they are already extensively monetized through fees on subscriptions, apps, and media rentals and purchases.

Recently purchased a Sony Android TV. And in the interest of giving it a fair shout, connected it to my network and signed in. The very first thing I saw was a near as makes no difference full screen advert for the Minecraft movie.

Nothing remotely related to selecting an input source or a channel. Just a straight advertisement pane. There is no opt out. No way to turn off the noise that I could see.

This is a plain statement of what their purpose is - sell advertisements first, display what you want second.

Disgusted with it I’ve factory reset the tv and MAC address banned it from my network.

I curse the whole Smart Tv industry.

I mean, if I see any kind of annoying unskippable ad on the $1000 TV which I own outright, whatever generated that ad is going in the trash can or being disconnected from the Internet if it can't.

Companies would do well to remember the conventions about the places where they can ram ads down our throats and the places where they had best behave.

A relative got a sony google tv and it is utter crap. No browser? I'll stick to fire sticks

Current fire sticks and Nvidia shields need a spec bump. I think they are starting to show their age. But Amazon is getting push back from content providers saying they enable piracy so time will tell what direction they end up going. People may have to go back to media center PCs if companies start to lock products down.

I'm a huge fan of Chromebox. Even the oldest ones are great, the only issue is that CEC which can be fixed with an adapter or you can use a media center type remote.

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