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That's great, Google has introduced a "pilot" program that now serves ads. The Sony TVs, as well as the Nvidia Shield and other products running the latest version of Android TV, have been hit by an irritating update from Google that is showing ads on the home page , and no, there is no easy way to remove the ads.
The ads appear on the Android TV home screen as a "sponsored" channel full of applications and programs. Google seems to think that the user could take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the channel is difficult to remove and can lead to heinous accidents for Android TV. The ads were first reported to XDA-Developers and Google's response to XDA-Developers was about as infuriating as expected.
Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the home entertainment experience. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we are running a pilot program to display sponsored content on the Android TV home screen.
Ars Technica notes that Sony, at least, is not really crazy about ads. A page appeared on Sony's support site titled "A sponsored channel suddenly appeared in the Home menu of my TV". Sony's page offers a workaround that is separate from the one linked above, while including at least one question and answer that could be perceived as underhanded.
Q2: What determines which applications will appear in the sponsored channel?
A2: This channel is managed by Google.
According to The Verge, these ads also appeared on Xiaomi's Mi Box 3 and on Nvidia's shield, which has only recently been updated for Android Oreo. Shield users have also been dealing with another Google-provided (and seemingly unwelcome) channel called App Spotlights. According to a moderator of Nvidia on the Shield forums, this channel should at least be easily removable (even if some users had difficulties).
With Android TV at the heart of the devices mentioned above, as well as TVs from TCL and Hisense, Google has an incredibly wide reach in the homes of its users. This decision, which forces users to advertise, is a big head fake and produces virtually a good press for competitors such as Roku or Apple, the latter having entered the television landscape with LG and Samsung devices and coming to end an event last week where he talked incessantly to protect the privacy of users and avoid unwanted ads.
We contacted Sony, Nvidia, and Google to learn more about these ads and the devices and software releases involved and to update them as we learn more.
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