If you are thinking of buying an LG OLED TV, or one of their appliances you may want to think twice, especially if you are not a fan of advertising, invasive privacy policies and above all having your personal space data sold to third parties and politicans.
LG Electronics is now using their TV’s and appliances to deliver advertising and to capture data on your personal life activities, they are also targetiing buyers of their products with seperate research studies, with the business now going all in on advertising and subscription revenue gleaned from their home appliances and television customers, as sales of their own products slump in Australia.
Do you remember when Foxtel was initially launched the big sell was that it was advertising free. Then when free to air TV stations started choking the hour with more ads and less relevant content, consumers took to streaming.
Now It’s LG Electronics whose TVs and appliances that are widely sold in Australia that is jumping on the advertising bandwagon, with their OLED TV’s now streaming ads via their webOS software with captured data being sold to a multitude of third parties.
Forget about the notion of buying an LG TV, in an effort to avoid ads, because their WebOS which is the heart and soul of an LG TV has been re-engineered, so that LG Electronics can pack in more advertising while taking a click of the revenue generated, when you activate one of the many streaming services now packed onto an LG TV access is then sold to brands who are being offered data on your viewing activities as well as how you use one of their appliances.
Consumers are already starting to complain about LG TVs that they claim are filled with ads and an operating system which you can’t use without agreeing to an” invasive privacy policy” .
In fact, it’s getting so bad that free to air TV stations in Australia, are lobbying the Federal Government so that their aps appearing on their OLED and TV’s that are also packed with advertising, take priority on LG TV’s ahead of overseas streaming Companies such as Amazon Prime and Netflix who have also taken to running advertising in their apps.
Basically, LG is trying to use their LG OLED TVs to squeeze additional revenue from its customers by going all in on advertising and subscription offerings for its home appliances and televisions.
It’s all part of a plan a plan to increase global annual revenue from the US$51 billion last year to almost $79 billion by 2030. Part of that growth strategy is to get webOS — the operating system running LG smart TVs delivering more advertising.
LG Electronics has also given the WebOS software to a multitude of external TV brands so that they can ear advertising revenue and streaming revenue from the apps featured on TVs running WebOS.
It’s all part of a plan a plan to increase global annual revenue from the US$51 billion last year to almost $79 billion by 2030. Part of that growth strategy is to get webOS — the operating system running LG smart TVs delivering more advertising.
LG Electronics has also given the WebOS software to a multitude of external TV brands so that they can ear advertising revenue and streaming revenue from the apps featured on TVs running WebOS.
Locally LG Australia is pushing themselves as the “Smart Life Solutions Company” and that has involved diversifying its current business portfolio and creating a business model that is basically selling consumers a piece of hardware such as a TV and appliance and then selling access to those devices and their owners to third parties.
Ironically the price of the LG TVs and appliances are not being reduced despite LG selling data they capture from devices in your home.
LG’s new growth strategy will introduce a “platform-based service business model that continuously generates profits, such as content and services, subscriptions and advertising solutions” claims the Companies CEO William Cho.
He claims that LG is quite prepared to step into a consumer’s personal space in an effort to capture data and then sell in other brands who want access to consumers who have purchased an LG product.
LG says that its TV business will be the first to transition to the new business model, with the intent of transforming into a “media and entertainment service provider.”
The service will initially. capture data via LG’s OLED and QNED TVs.
LG claims that their webOS platform is already running on over 200 million smart TVs globally and that they intend to bring its webOS software to as many devices as they can because the data they capture in the personal space of consumers is seen as a valuable commodity.
And if that is not bad enough consumers may soon need to pay a subscription to unlock features on LG ThinQ appliances.
Management also admit that subscriptions will play a prevalent role on LG’s range of household appliances with systems being updated over the air in a move that will make certain services, only available if you subscribe to an LG Electronics service.
Management claim “the goal is to further evolve LG ThinQ UP appliances that upgrade functions customers need even after purchase and evolve into a “Home as a Service platform,” which includes customer personalization options, subscription services, and support for unnamed smart home services”.
Today’s LG appliances, are specifically being designed to enable updates of new features via the ThinQ app.
LG management recently claimed that some automakers were using a similar business model to charge customers to unlock features that are already built into their vehicles.
It appears that they failed to talk to BMW who after rolling a ridiculous monthly fee for the pleasure of a backside warmer, during cold winter months suddenly realised that the notion of subscriptions was a controversial subject.
BMW quickly dropped its plans for an $18 a month heated seats subscription after customers balked at the idea of paying extra to unlock existing functions in their cars.
In an interview with Autocar, Pieter Nota, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing, admitted that the heated seats subscription experiment did not meet the desired level of user acceptance and was quickly killed off following a howl of complaints from BMW owners.
So if you are looking to buy an LG TV or appliance, expect to get to have to put up with advertising on top of the advertising served by TV stations, and also expect your personal space data to be sold by LG to brands that want access to your personal information including how you are likely to vote, what you buy and what you watch.
Tomorrow we will reveal how LG Electronics is spruiking politicans over voting intent among their TV and appliance owners, and how Federal and State Governments should drop free to air TV when elections are on.
