Expect to see even more ads and services in your LG TV in the near future as LG is transforming into a "smart life solution company", starting with its TV business.

CEO William Cho announced the new direction for LG Electronics at a speech in Seoul, South Korea, outlining a transformation from a hardware-oriented business, which generations sales and profits at the time of purchase, into "a platform-based service business model that continuously generates profits".

In other words you should expect to see more ads and more ad-supported services in your LG OLED TV or "QNED" LCD TV in the near future.

- "To start, as of the end of this year, LG’s TV business is projected to make a great transformation based on its webOS operating system, which powers more than 200 million smart TVs around the world. In line with this, the company intends to transform its TV business portfolio into a 'media and entertainment service provider' by expanding content, services and advertisement in products, including LG OLED and LG QNED TVs, which have differentiated competitiveness," announced LG.


LG Channels
The company said that it is planning to expand the webOS platform to more TV brands, a journey it started in 2021, as reported by FlatpanelsHD.

It will also invest to expand LG Channels, which is a streaming service with free ad-supported content that is competing with the Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, and other free streaming services in the US and internationally.

- "The company will invest more than KRW 1 trillion over five years to strengthen the content competitiveness and drive growth of LG Channels – an advertising-based free broadcast platform. LG Channels increased from 20 million users in 25 countries last year to 48 million users in 29 countries this year. To achieve quantitative growth, LG will expand customer contact points by increasing the supply of the webOS platform to external TV brands and expand the application of webOS to other product groups."


 LG is transforming into a 'smart life solution company' starting with its TV business. Photo: LG

Cheaper LG TVs?
With the new direction, LG is following in the footsteps of Amazon, Roku and other makers of low-end TV hardware supported by ads and "recommendations".

Rival Samsung has also redesigned its TV operating system, Tizen, to show more ads, while Google has introduced more ads and "recommendations" in Android TV and Google TV, affecting makers such as Hisense, Philips, Sony, and TCL.

 Also read: EU: Large TV platforms must clearly declare ads and 'recommendations'


 webOS 23 in LG's 2023 models already has a half-page ad carousel. Photo: LG

LG's webOS was redesigned a couple of years ago to a full-screen interface with an added emphasis on ads including content highlights from partners. The company recently rolled out the full-screen webOS to select older TV models.

It is a departure from LG's current strategy of selling premium OLED TVs so it begs the question: Will LG TVs get cheaper? Earlier this month, for example, Telly began shipping as the first free, ad-supported TV.