Reply to post: Re: "you're also paying to be part of Samsung's global TV advertising network"

Reg reader returns Samsung TV after finding giant ads splattered everywhere

juice

Re: "you're also paying to be part of Samsung's global TV advertising network"

>> "Why do you think the TVs are so cheap these days?"

> They're not.

I think I both agree and disagree. They are cheap from a direct-cost perspective, thanks both to manufacturing improvements (who can remember the last time they bought a display with dead pixels?) to some vicious competition which has driven profit margins down to virtually zero.

And even then, we've arguably long since hit "good enough" in terms of both quality and screen size; see the almost desperate way in which TV companies have jumped on various bandwagons (3D displays, curved screens, 4K, etc) and then dropped them when it became clear that the market wasn't actually all that interested.

TVs are now a commodity - one which uses standardised parts and standardised interfaces to do standardised things. And that makes it very hard to make any significant profits from them.

On the other hand, the manufacturing companies have to make their money from somewhere. And that is where all this integrated advertising and tracking stuff comes in, since it's all a small but recurring/ongoing revenue stream.

Personally, I prefer to use the TV as a dumb display, and hook in various standalone devices for my media consumption. And that's what I'll keep doing.

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