Samsung will start showing advertisements in your “Smart TV” user interface and push out a software update to enable ads on older TVs, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Korean manufacturer hopes to establish an additional revenue stream to compete with Chinese manufacturers.
Ads in your TV interface
Samsung is adding advertisements in your TV interface next to the apps you use most frequently. The company started rolling out the program in the US last year and will expand it to cover Europe over the coming months, according to the Wall Street Journal.
However, it is not a foregone conclusion that European regulators will allow it, the report notes. To be clear, customers have paid full price for these TVs that can cost upwards of several thousand dollars for premium models.
The advertisement system is already supported on Samsung’s latest “Smart TVs” and old models will start supporting the advertisement platform after a software update. The ads will reportedly be interactive. One example given is an ad from Disney that initiatives a quiz if pressed.
Not the first time
This is not the first time that Samsung has experimented with ads on its TVs. Samsung’s old TV platform displayed ads from inside the app store in a small window.
At one point, Samsung even started inserting ads into videos that users had stored on a USB drive or on the network. The company quickly rolled back the system after an outcry from owners.
Samsung is not the only TV manufacturer to insert ads into the TV interface. Panasonic also displays ads on its latest TVs running Firefox OS, and when Philips adopted Google’s Android TV operating system for its TVs in Europe, the company started displaying ads in the TV guide.
Samsung is currently the leading TV manufacturer with 20% market share. The Korean company sells around 50 million TVs per year.
