According to LG, LG has started showing screen saver ads on all its smart TVs, even the expensive OLED models. press release and a Flat panelsHD report. The embeds appear before the regular screen saver is activated.
On top of an ad for LG’s own streaming channel, one Flat panelsHD reviewer saw third party ads. According to LG, the screensaver ads will appear “on the home screen, on LG channels and in the content store on LG smart TVs.” These are now enabled by default, but can be disabled in the settings.
LG hasn’t announced the new “feature” to the public, but it has announced it on its own LG Advertising Solutions site. The company found that “screen saver ads showed an average 2.5 times higher increase in brand awareness…Rejecting the assumption that the viewer’s attention span is limited after the TV screen is left blank.”
It might be great for advertisers, but buyers paying up to $4,500 for a high-end TV might not be so keen. Many TV owners never bother to turn off the “soap opera effect” that smooths out motion on their TVs, so LG can trust that they won’t have to go into the menus to turn off ads.
LG is already researching its buyers’ viewing habits by dusting off content recognition tracking data collected from their TVs. hands it over to the Nielsen rating company. That kind of revenue potential in a tight-margin business prompted it to launch its LG Advertising Solutions division earlier this month, with the goal of finding new ways to serve ads and track smart TV users. Including other companies are guilty of serving ads in smart TV ecosystems Samsung, RokuTCL etc.
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