5 ms·

Gamers Nexus have a video about this. Definitely worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9uefFYe6bM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9uefFYe6bM

embedding-shape 2mo ago
I'm wondering if we in Europe gets vastly different experience compared to Americans or elsewhere in the world. People complain about LG having ads everywhere in the monitors, displays and what not, but none of our LG products (bought and used in Spain) have any ads anywhere. I'm sitting here with a LG monitor and our main TV is a LG OLED TV, neither of them have ads anywhere, although I haven't booted Windows in a couple of days and I guess I won't, until this malware issue been fixed. But still, is it possible Americans are receiving more ads than in other parts of the world? Certainly online sentiment gives me that impression.
- 15155 2mo ago
  > Americans are receiving more ads than in other parts of the world Ads aren't free, so yes, it would stand to reason that people in the largest consumer market in the world might garner more ad spend.
  - embedding-shape 2mo ago
    So because the US is the largest consumer market in the world, the TVs LG sell in the US has more ads in the UIs than TVs sold in Europe? Why would it be like that? If that theory is true, does that mean TVs sold in the European Union then have more ads than TVs sold in China, as the EU consumer market is larger than the China one?
    - 15155 2mo ago
      > Why would it be like that? Ads aren't free - this isn't a "theory," it's basic economics. Cost can be political (you cause the entire EU government to outlaw the practice) or monetary. > If that theory is true, does that mean TVs sold in the European Union then have more ads than TVs sold in China Probably? The markets have little overlap, but again, this is a function of cost. Where people have more money to spend, I have more money to spend on ads, or more money to spend on campaigning to be allowed to show ads.
      - embedding-shape 2mo ago
        > Probably? Spoiler: LG TVs sold in China also seem to have more ads than the LG TV we end up buying in Europe. Seemingly (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48957229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48957229) with Samsung it's the same. Even though EU is a larger consumer market than China, so obviously your theory doesn't hold, it's something else than "Bigger consumer markets === more ads in UIs in TVs".
        15155 2mo ago
        > obviously your theory doesn't hold Cost is my "theory." A larger market can sustain larger ad spend, and in some areas it's cheaper to make larger ad buys. Both are true. Also, "larger market" obviously implies a category-specific qualifier. People in the United States might have more of an appetite for televisions than people without running water - news at 11. > Spoiler: LG TVs sold in China also seem to have more ads than the LG TV we end up buying in Europe. "Spoiler:" is an unnecessarily cunty way to lead a declaration of fact with zero objective accompanying evidence. Any citation you care to provide? "More ads" is already a pretty subjective, ill-defined thing. More screen time? More individual advertisers? More unique advertisements? Larger screen area?
        embedding-shape 2mo ago
        > Any citation you care to provide? Not really, the question I posed initially was a casual one, based on reading around basically. I'm guessing you then have a citation handy for the US LG TVs having more ads because the US is a bigger consumer market? > "More ads" is already a pretty subjective, ill-defined thing. More screen time? More individual advertisers? More unique advertisements? Larger screen area? If you open up the TV home dashboard, do you see ads? On my LG TV I don't, looking at screenshots from LG TVs in the US, there seems to be.
        15155 2mo ago
        [flagged]
    - jdw64 2mo ago
      Europe has strong GDPR regulations. As for China, I've heard that hardware margins are low, so the hardware itself is just bait, and they embed ads in the software inside. But this is just something I heard from another Korean programmer, so it's not really a serious claim
  - reaperducer 2mo ago
    You must be getting downvoted by people who have never run an ad-supported web site. When I used to do that, North American traffic got ads 100% of the time. European traffic might get ads 5% of the time. Otherwise, there were few advertisers that cared. However, this was back before Google AdSense upended the industry, and you could still make a living showing one static ad per page.
    - 15155 2mo ago
      It's afternoon in Europe, and folks generally don't like to be reminded of the fact that their market is decreasing in global relevance. In this case, ads are even a product people actively want to avoid, but it's still unsettling to be undesirable. Imagine banning smoking and then getting upset that Philip Morris doesn't want to sell to you anymore.
      - Jtarii 2mo ago
        I don't think many Europeans are lamenting that companies are advertising to Americans more than them.
  - dvdkon 2mo ago
    More spend doesn't equal more ads. Given a fixed number of ad spots, demand dictates the price advertisers would pay for ad placement. But ad platforms have no incentive to reduce the number of ads they show just because placement price is low; keeping ad spots around costs them nothing.
  - InsideOutSanta 2mo ago
    The cost of ads already accounts for the audience. Ads in the US are more expensive, so the number of ads people see should be roughly the same despite higher ad spend.
  - account42 2mo ago
    Adds are a market so they are priced according to demand.
- throwa356262 2mo ago
  In general, yes. But in case of LG TVs, they record your activities in EU too. You can opt out, but the settings has a very non-descriptive name ("live plus") and resets by itself when you are not looking. https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features-a4840102036/ https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-t...
  - embedding-shape 2mo ago
    Right, I'm wondering about the amount of ads though.
    - throwa356262 2mo ago
      No, I think the ads are limited to own services and third party apps right now. Same goes for Samsung in EU.
  - owlbite 2mo ago
    At least with LG TVs you can just not give them the internet and nothing of value is lost (at least assuming you have an Apple TV or other trusted smart tv capability). Much more difficult to not give the windows PC internet and have it be useful (at least mine is only used for gaming).
- bloqs 2mo ago
  Same here in the UK

embedding-shape 2mo ago

I'm wondering if we in Europe gets vastly different experience compared to Americans or elsewhere in the world. People complain about LG having ads everywhere in the monitors, displays and what not, but none of our LG products (bought and used in Spain) have any ads anywhere. I'm sitting here with a LG monitor and our main TV is a LG OLED TV, neither of them have ads anywhere, although I haven't booted Windows in a couple of days and I guess I won't, until this malware issue been fixed. But still, is it possible Americans are receiving more ads than in other parts of the world? Certainly online sentiment gives me that impression.

15155 2mo ago
> Americans are receiving more ads than in other parts of the world Ads aren't free, so yes, it would stand to reason that people in the largest consumer market in the world might garner more ad spend.
- embedding-shape 2mo ago
  So because the US is the largest consumer market in the world, the TVs LG sell in the US has more ads in the UIs than TVs sold in Europe? Why would it be like that? If that theory is true, does that mean TVs sold in the European Union then have more ads than TVs sold in China, as the EU consumer market is larger than the China one?
  - 15155 2mo ago
    > Why would it be like that? Ads aren't free - this isn't a "theory," it's basic economics. Cost can be political (you cause the entire EU government to outlaw the practice) or monetary. > If that theory is true, does that mean TVs sold in the European Union then have more ads than TVs sold in China Probably? The markets have little overlap, but again, this is a function of cost. Where people have more money to spend, I have more money to spend on ads, or more money to spend on campaigning to be allowed to show ads.
    - embedding-shape 2mo ago
      > Probably? Spoiler: LG TVs sold in China also seem to have more ads than the LG TV we end up buying in Europe. Seemingly (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48957229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48957229) with Samsung it's the same. Even though EU is a larger consumer market than China, so obviously your theory doesn't hold, it's something else than "Bigger consumer markets === more ads in UIs in TVs".
      - 15155 2mo ago
        > obviously your theory doesn't hold Cost is my "theory." A larger market can sustain larger ad spend, and in some areas it's cheaper to make larger ad buys. Both are true. Also, "larger market" obviously implies a category-specific qualifier. People in the United States might have more of an appetite for televisions than people without running water - news at 11. > Spoiler: LG TVs sold in China also seem to have more ads than the LG TV we end up buying in Europe. "Spoiler:" is an unnecessarily cunty way to lead a declaration of fact with zero objective accompanying evidence. Any citation you care to provide? "More ads" is already a pretty subjective, ill-defined thing. More screen time? More individual advertisers? More unique advertisements? Larger screen area?
        embedding-shape 2mo ago
        > Any citation you care to provide? Not really, the question I posed initially was a casual one, based on reading around basically. I'm guessing you then have a citation handy for the US LG TVs having more ads because the US is a bigger consumer market? > "More ads" is already a pretty subjective, ill-defined thing. More screen time? More individual advertisers? More unique advertisements? Larger screen area? If you open up the TV home dashboard, do you see ads? On my LG TV I don't, looking at screenshots from LG TVs in the US, there seems to be.
        15155 2mo ago
        [flagged]
  - jdw64 2mo ago
    Europe has strong GDPR regulations. As for China, I've heard that hardware margins are low, so the hardware itself is just bait, and they embed ads in the software inside. But this is just something I heard from another Korean programmer, so it's not really a serious claim
- reaperducer 2mo ago
  You must be getting downvoted by people who have never run an ad-supported web site. When I used to do that, North American traffic got ads 100% of the time. European traffic might get ads 5% of the time. Otherwise, there were few advertisers that cared. However, this was back before Google AdSense upended the industry, and you could still make a living showing one static ad per page.
  - 15155 2mo ago
    It's afternoon in Europe, and folks generally don't like to be reminded of the fact that their market is decreasing in global relevance. In this case, ads are even a product people actively want to avoid, but it's still unsettling to be undesirable. Imagine banning smoking and then getting upset that Philip Morris doesn't want to sell to you anymore.
    - Jtarii 2mo ago
      I don't think many Europeans are lamenting that companies are advertising to Americans more than them.
- dvdkon 2mo ago
  More spend doesn't equal more ads. Given a fixed number of ad spots, demand dictates the price advertisers would pay for ad placement. But ad platforms have no incentive to reduce the number of ads they show just because placement price is low; keeping ad spots around costs them nothing.
- InsideOutSanta 2mo ago
  The cost of ads already accounts for the audience. Ads in the US are more expensive, so the number of ads people see should be roughly the same despite higher ad spend.
- account42 2mo ago
  Adds are a market so they are priced according to demand.
throwa356262 2mo ago
In general, yes. But in case of LG TVs, they record your activities in EU too. You can opt out, but the settings has a very non-descriptive name ("live plus") and resets by itself when you are not looking. https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features-a4840102036/ https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-t...
- embedding-shape 2mo ago
  Right, I'm wondering about the amount of ads though.
  - throwa356262 2mo ago
    No, I think the ads are limited to own services and third party apps right now. Same goes for Samsung in EU.
- owlbite 2mo ago
  At least with LG TVs you can just not give them the internet and nothing of value is lost (at least assuming you have an Apple TV or other trusted smart tv capability). Much more difficult to not give the windows PC internet and have it be useful (at least mine is only used for gaming).
bloqs 2mo ago
Same here in the UK