Google TV owners who like to use the “apps-only” mode to simplify their smart TV menu are likely to be upset by the imminent arrival of ads popping up where there were none before.
That’s according to a report in Flatpanels HD, which says it has come across complaints about the new ads from users in various European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. According to those complaints, users are now seeing large banner ads pop up when using the apps-only mode in Google TV.
The users are upset because the apps-only mode was previously one of the few areas within the Google TV interface that was essentially ad-free, but now even that bastion has been penetrated.
Such reports don’t come as a surprise though, as ads in the apps-only section had already been spotted some months ago by North American users. However, it appears they’re now coming to plague Europeans as well.
The ads were spotted on TV models including the Sony Bravia 8, the Philips OLED809 and the TCL C855, which are among the best Google TVs that money can buy.
One reason why people are complaining is that the apps-only mode has often been seen as a way to avoid the constant distraction of recommended content that pops up everywhere else when navigating through the Google TV OS menus.
Google even states itself on the menus in Google TV that when you select apps-only, “it will hide Google’s recommendations from your home screen” along with other kinds of bloat such as user’s feedback on shows, and buttons for quickly adding them to a watchlist. It’s just a straightforward list of apps installed on your TV.
Except that now, Google is adding recommended content anyway, as shown in the image above. And it’s right there at the top of the screen, forcing users to scroll down to see their apps, despite it supposedly being “apps-only”.
It's in stark contrast to what the apps-only mode looked like before, without the ads:
There’s a fairly good argument to make that it defeats the whole point of having an apps-only mode, though for now it seems that the content recommendations are limited to just one banner at the top, instead of being interspersed throughout the home screen menu. And it’s still simpler in the sense that there’s no reviews or anything else to distract you.
Still, it’s a sign that TV software providers have no intention of letting up in their quest to monetize their users as much as it’s possible to do. The addition of apps-only ads follows the launch of “unskippable ads” that pop up when watching Google TVs’ free streaming channels (only available in the U.S.). Other companies are doing the same too, with LG recently introducing screensaver ads for webOS on its premium OLED and LCD TVs. Amazon Fire TV is also said to be testing screensaver ads, while Roku reportedly has plans to introduce video ads on its homescreen.
Of course, the major video streaming giants are also getting in on the game. Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video all offer lower-priced subscription tiers that are backed up by ads, and the latter is even planning to show them during movies and TV shows from next year, not just before and after.
The trend suggests that we’ll likely see more varied types of ads and ad formats popping up in other parts of our TV experience in future, as companies seem to be getting increasingly emboldened.
