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.

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acheron a day ago | parent | next [-]

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

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HDBaseT a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

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dewey a day ago | parent | next [-]

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.

	▲	microcode a day ago \| parent [-]
		Indeed, many of these TVs serve ads by default on their screensavers and home screens.

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a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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bigfishrunning a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's been a very long time since they were given an option.

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pixelmelt a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Aren't consumer class dumb TVs gone?

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dewey a day ago | parent [-]

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.

	▲	wewtyflakes a day ago \| parent [-]
		The companies that make these TVs love that we are this point since they can now take away the subsidy, and you also coincidentally now have no option to buy a non-smart TV, so they are now collecting $ from both the purchase and from the ads. Tada! Grossness all around.