Smart TV - Ads on the Menu Bar

[MrShak1982]

Surely there must be a way to disable this? If I'd known I'd be getting this I'd have brought a different brand. It's annoying me to the point where I'm serious considering getting rid. Sounds dramatic but it feels invasive. 

[HJD1]

My brother was about to buy a Samsung S10 phone last week. After I told him about all the complaints about Samsung's unwanted advertising/spam, he changed his mind. So that's an expensive phone sale Samsung have lost because of their compulsory advertising policy. (ok it is optional, in theory, but then you lose many of the smart functions as you have to agree to all the terms of service). I won't even browse Samsung products any more and I was one of their biggest fans. At one point our household had three Samsung phones. I've bought 5 Samsung TVs in the last 10 years (2 as gifts).  I still have three Samsung TVs and an American style FridgeFreezer (replacement for a previous Samsung FF) but when they fail there is no likelyhood another Samsung will replace any of them!

I keep having to factory reset my main smart TV as, after a few months, the menus slow down, the channels don't change properly, the remote control doesn't produce a response. It behaves just like a computer that's had poor software updates and needs a system reinstall. Samsung's adverts seem to behave like software updates that are interfering with my TV's operating system software. The TV that isn't connected to the internet still works perfectly after 8 years. I wonder why!

[Mikeread]

I have now convinced my wife that additional advertising on tv is not good so she’s looking at other tv’s

[ShruggAU]

I agree but it’s easy to change just go to home icon on your bottom toolbar main menu then privacy choices then terms & conditions privacy policy and untick interest based advertisements and save. When you go back to main menu adds will be gone from bottom toolbar

[Pouryashamsi]

Won’t work. 
after a few times turning TV on and off, ads will come back with the ad setting off. And then they won’t go away anymore. 

[thomasjorgen]

Denmark. UE65KS7005 (2017).

Same issue here, although ads option unticked several times over. Ads always comes back.

Reached out to Samsung Denmark on Facebook and via E-mail, and always got the same reply: cannot be removed. Now running a case at the Ombudsmand to get some authority to look into possible GDPR breach.

[HJD1]

My reading of the terms (and they take a long time to get through!) is that unticking interest based advertisement doesn't stop other(non interest based) adverts. Apparently I'm still responsible for any misuse of my account details if a third party uses my details after I've installed an app on the smart tv, even if the ad for that app came via Samsung.

I have all the advertising options unticked but there are still currently 20 'Editor's Choices' showing in the Apps bit of the toolbar. MLB. Shahid, WRC, EMBY, iNES, Hidabroot TV, Kidoodle, TiBO, AfreecaTV, Player.pl, MyTV.BG, SmartUP, Magi GO... 

Rakuten TV, Chili, Xite showing in the Recommended section with BBC news and sport.

Are you seriously suggesting Samsung aren't making money from these 'things' taking up screen space and leeching from my fibre broadband. 

Why is Samsung even making me aware  of these? I already have more channels than I can watch, even after switching off Samsungs TV+ channels (again). TV+ had to go as it was stopping me changing Freeview channels and last week pressing the Guide button had a 5 second delay before the channel list came on. As soon as I managed to disable TV+ the menu worked again and I could use the channel up/down button without the channel jumping from 25 to 4077 or similar! I just wonder how long it will take before TV+ is re enabled by some wizardry!

They even tell you to check the privacy policies re cookies, data use etc. of third party app providers as any problems will not be down to Samsung to sort out. Seems to be a case of 'Please try out these apps, so we can get some extra money. If the app  messes up your tv, please for support, call the people who made the app'

[gbottesini]

I'm considering buying a Samsung TV mostly because it seems to be the only top brand that sells 70-inch TVs (which is the largest size I can physically get into my basement).

Are the ads just "icons" on the menu or are they intrusive (for example, videos or pop-ups that make you do "additional work" before getting to use the TV?)

[adriansmith31]

They are just icons on the menu however my 43" 2016 model randomly goes to channel 4000 or 4002 which are the advertising channels for paid content like Rakuten upon power on. If you don't switch to live TV before it starts to load it freezes the TV up and you get movie trailers and other ads at a very loud volume that you can't get rid of. It then defaults to Rakuten TV on next power up making it a struggle to select anything else on the menu as it makes the TV menus so incredibly slow you just want to smash it. Uninstalling the apps helps for a while but they just re-appear by themselves after a few days. This is the most annoying thing.

[gbottesini]

Thanks for the info.

What if you, say, immediately load the netflix or prime app? Is that smooth or will the apps get in the way regardless?

[adriansmith31]

No, the ads don't get in the way once netflix or amazon prime is loaded. My TV takes a good 5 mins for the menus to respond normally after a unplug at wall reset. It is very slow as it boots and loads it's internal applications "in the background" whilst live TV is being displayed. Sometimes when pressing the home button the menu won't load or works very slowly if the TV has a problem loading the advert as that appears first before any of the other icons. I presume this is because it's trying to contact the Samsung advert server and is hanging the TV. 

I've resorted to disabling the smart functions by disconnecting it from the internet and I use an amazon fire TV stick instead. However even though it has no internet connection it will still go to channel 4000 / 4002, lock up and complain it can't connect to the internet.