Because capitalism I'm afraid
It seems every bit of spare space is a potential billboard. Kindles at least have an option to have no ads - you pay a tenner for the privilege (one-off payment). Why can't Samsung and Sony do this? If they were upfront about it maybe like this:
A 1/8 screen ad on every menu and a 1/5 screen at the top menu, we hoover up your viewing habits so you get 'relevant' ads. You get at most 5 different ads a week and at least 1. This means we can sell your TV for £400 instead of £430. So you can pay the extra £30 to remove the ads*
*soon to be £50 a year for the 'Samsung/Sony/whatever Ultimate Package'
Biting the hand that feeds IT
