ExtremeTech - Vizio Makes 2x More Selling Ads and Data Than it Does on TVs
 
“Vizio may be known as a television company, but one look at its books will tell you it’s raking in cash for far more than flatscreens. In its last earnings report, the newly publicly-traded company revealed that its advertising and viewer data segment is making more than twice as much money as the Vizio segment that sells actual devices.
 
Since going public earlier this year, Vizio has operated its business in two distinct segments: Platform Plus and Devices. Platform Plus encompasses Vizio’s advertising and user data business, while Devices includes the sale of Vizio’s hardware. As it turns out, Platform Plus is responsible for more of Vizio’s revenue than its Devices segment; Platform Plus pulled $57.3 million in gross profit over the last three months, while Devices made $25.6 million.
 
This is because Vizio uses its TVs to gain access to its true moneymakers: advertising and viewer data. Vizio sells many of its TVs at cost (or close to it), which may at first sound like poor practice, but in reality it allows Vizio to begin tracking whatever the new owners of those TVs watch. Vizio can then sell that data, likely to whomever would be interested in which entertainment options garner the most viewership. It’s why smart TVs are somehow more affordable than “dumb” TVs—smart TVs may come loaded with far more capabilities, but they also provide manufacturers with avenues to track users’ viewing data, and sometimes their location as well. In a way, the end users of Vizio’s TVs are Vizio’s real product.
 
The southern California-based company also earns a significant portion of its keep by advertising shows, movies, and streaming services to users. If you own a smart TV, take a look at your remote: if it has a Netflix button, for example, that button is the product of negotiations between the TV manufacturer and Netflix to the tune of cold hard cash. Homescreen ads and banner ads (like the kind you see while browsing for something to watch) are also prime opportunities for Vizio to make money off of streaming services.
 
Vizio isn’t the only hardware company that not-so-secretly generates a significant portion of its profits through viewer data. Roku also tracks viewer data in order to more effectively negotiate advertising deals that earn the hardware company a pretty penny. But while Vizio’s earnings report boasts that it’s now the #2 TV brand and #1 sound bar brand in the United States, don’t be fooled—the company might as well be considered a advertising firm.”
 
My thoughts:  Not really surprising for any company, but Vizio is making 2.23 times as much selling advertising and viewer data as the physical product.

It is as if the physical product is just the conduit to their real corporate product, data mining and advertising.

The number one thing I do with any TV I own is never connect it to the internet. That's how they get their money back from selling their sets at a loss, and I have absolutely zero vested interest in being another cow for these companies to milk.
 
I've seen the hundreds of thousands of ad requests my Samsung TV sends daily through my Raspberry Pi (running Pi-Hole DNS), and it's just plain egregious and disgusting. It's no wonder why the TV's built-in streaming apps crash and freeze so much, I'd imagine it easily overwhelms itself from all of the data collection in the background and choking that cheap controller board processor blue!
 
This is why I treat all of my televisions as a glorified computer monitor with a fancier input-selector OSD, and just keep those spyware devices external.

aka_STEVE_b
Yeah , that stuff needs to be optional / able to be turned off. 

They probably have it as an option but how many people go into the options or really care that much? I personally know it doesn't matter since I am sure the credit card companies are able to look up where I buy my gas and groceries.

 
I only get Samsung or LG.