Samsung Appears To Be Stuffing Pop-Up Ads In Its Smart TVs

Samsung's Web-connected Smart TVs appear to be more than just a way to stream stuff from Netflix and Pandora. It looks like the company is also experimenting with ways to show you ads on your set, just like you'd see when browsing the Internet.

David Chartier, a tech writer and commentator, posted a photo of a pop-up ad for a "Yahoo Broadcast Interactivity" app that randomly appeared on his Samsung Smart TV last week. But the pop-up ad itself wasn't the strangest part. It turns out the ad showed up while Chartier was watching his Apple TV, which was on a separate input. Whether it was a glitch or not, this clearly isn't an optimal experience.

Chartier wrote that he had to dig through Samsung's Smart TV app store to find something called the SyncPlus app that disables pop-up ads on his TV. Again, that's hardly not a good experience for users who are annoyed by the ads. If Samsung decides to switch pop-up ads on by default, it's odd that it would make users jump through so many hoops to switch them off.

Samsung isn't alone in this practice though. Panasonic also displays banner ads on its smart TVs that you have to disable in the settings menu.

A spokesperson for Samsung was unable to comment on or explain why Chartier saw the pop-up ad. The spokesperson also couldn't detail how or why Samsung TVs are showing such ads.