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Comment by doublerabbit

2 months ago

Walked past a TV and it was advertising a security guard.

Why does a TV need security software?

Because most people (HN is not a representative sample set) are not willing to pay the real price of a TV if it wouldn't be subsidized by adtech.

  • TVs were unsubsidized by ad tech up until 10 years ago, and I’m pretty sure most people bought TVs back then.

  • I'm not sure the adtech is even enough to subsidize the price in a meaningful way.

    Google’s global ad revenue equates to roughly $61 per user per year, most TV manufacturers would be unable to extract that much out per user, even with crazy levels of tracking, ads, etc.

    I haven't used a modern TV in a very long time, but I can't imagine LG is extracting over $20 in ad revenue/data revenue per year. It might move the needle on <$500 displays, but when LG displays costing over $5,000 still have this spyware its hard to defend.

    • What makes you think LG would not be hitting the Google numbers (Instagram ad-free is ~$6 / month for example, roughly the same ballpark)? A device that's connected to a high speed internet connection, often allowed to do background tasks and being able to track all data being consumed through it (Streaming services, gaming etc.) is extremely valuable.

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  • Aren't consumer class dumb TVs gone?

    • Yes, that's kind of the point. If you have the choice between $500 black rectangle and $1000 black rectangle where the only difference is some boring privacy policy details most people will go with option 1.

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Windows needs antivirus so why wouldn't a TV? Unfortunately there's a lot of placebo software out there.