Every now and then, advertising executives and device manufacturers make decisions that seem to demonstrate they live in alternate universes. A great instance of this is Samsung’s apparent decision to enable ad-playing on certain smart TVs when consumers are watching their own content. The company’s partnership with Yahoo on display ad technology was reported several weeks ago, when tech writer David Chartier noticed Yahoo-curated ads showing up on his Samsung display while he used an Apple TV. At the time, Samsung promised that the app feature would be opt-in over time and claimed that the then-current need to opt-out would be temporary.

It seems that the company’s rollout is hitting more than isolated authors, and causing significant unhappiness as a result. According to Reddit user beans90, Samsung is now firing ads into the middle of the Plex app, which he was using to stream local content at the time. In other words, Samsung’s new plan for its advertising partnership with Yahoo appears to be showing you ads at any time, regardless of your current activity.

This is particularly egregious given that Samsung has already been in the news this week for privacy issues related to its decision to share data with third-parties providing voice recognition and TV access. Apparently the company’s over-ambitious software is inserting ads into user sets every 20 to 30 minutes, and it’s doing it across multiple continents with both live TV and prerecorded material. One user reports half-screen pop-up ads for Pepsi appearing on their TV every 15 minutes, overlaying live TV.

Smart TVs are their own worst enemy

Smart TVs have faced a number of uphill issues, from poor UIs, weak performance, and a lack of focus — but they also face a profound design challenge. Companies like Samsung are, from all appearances, their own worst enemies where these devices are concerned. Far from creating a compelling user experience, they’ve ham-handedly built a product where consumers are hammered with ads regardless of what they’re doing with the television.



Samsung is obviously trying to monetize its Smart TV functions after its paid app store fell through a year ago, but the problem here is simple: When I buy a television, I expect to be able to use that TV to view ad-free content. If I’ve paid for a Netflix subscription, or a Blu-ray, the lack of advertising is critical to the experience as promised by the content provider. Injecting ads over user-displayed content cuts directly against that perceived contract and companies like Netflix are going to take a very dim view of ad injection attempts that compromise their own product.

In January, Samsung defended its YouTube partnership by noting that end-users could disable the advertising feature. Specifically:

We are working with Yahoo to create an opt-in screen prompt specific to their service as soon as possible. In the meantime, users can opt out of the Yahoo experience by swiping up on their touch remote to highlight the check box and then clicking to uncheck it. To opt-out of Yahoo Broadcast Interactivity, Exit Smart Hub first, press Menu on your Samsung Remote and scroll to Smart Hub > Terms & Policy > Yahoo Privacy Policy. Scroll to “I disagree with the Yahoo Privacy Notice.” and you can toggle the option on to opt-out.

There’s a term for this kind of utterly obfuscated opt-out: a “dark pattern.” Not only is the option buried in multiple menus, it’s a toggle to disagree as opposed to a toggle to agree — the opposite of what’s typically done in UI design. Clearly the goal is to make it just difficult enough to quit that most people don’t. The problem with that is Samsung’s advertising model is clearly annoying enough that most users will find a way to stop using the feature — or they’ll be returning an awful lot of televisions.

The issue with this feature is not the display frequency or the shape and size of the ad, it’s that the advertising exists at all. Smart TVs are doomed so long as they violate user privacy and relentlessly push further monetization of content into private video viewing.

I got some stupid Pepsi adds