As a part of a pilot program, Google has added a brand new sponsored content material part to some Android TV units, the corporate confirmed in a press release to XDA Developers.
That reaffirms an earlier report of some customers noticing ads showing on their Android TV-based Sony X900F TVs, although a press release from an Nvidia consultant denies that the advertisements are showing on Shield TVs – which means that the issue may simply be contained to Sony sensible TVs.
If the replace has been deployed to your system, you’ll discover a brand new ‘Sponsored Content material’ row on the house display in between your really helpful content material.
In contrast to different channels on Android TV, those that have the replace declare the sponsored row can’t be custom-made in any approach, nor can or not it’s eliminated within the typical approach – requiring these customers to disable the Android TV Core Providers app and manually restart the system.
That stated, whereas nobody likes seeing ads spring up in a spot the place there have been none earlier than, what’s notably irritating is the best way by which Google stealthily deployed the replace and within the lengths some customers have wanted to undergo to take away them.
Inserting ads – or, as Google calls it, Sponsored Content material – is a sensitive topic for TV and residential leisure fanatics. Each TiVo and Roku caught flak once they launched ads to their respective units, and Vizio was fined $2.2 million for its misleading advert practices in 2017.
What Sony makes obvious within the put up is that that is very clearly a Google mandate – Sony could use Google’s sensible TV platform but it surely’s not in command of these advertisements.
…Which, if you happen to ask us, appears like a very well mannered approach of claiming “we’re putting ads on your TV”.