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Television prices have plummeted due to hidden tech that harvests lucrative user data by analysing everything watched onscreen, privacy experts warn, with some models now sold at a loss by manufacturers pivoting to make money from customers’ data.
Once a significant purchase of up to $10,000, flat-screen prices have dropped dramatically. Most brands now offer a 50-inch 4K set within the $500-$700 range, while even cutting-edge models nearing 100 inches are more affordable.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data prepared for this masthead, TV prices have dropped steeply over the past decade, down 73 per cent between June 2016 and June 2026 – interrupted only by a 2022 COVID supply-chain blip – despite steady economy-wide inflation of 32 per cent over the same period.
This means a $2000 TV in 2016 now costs just $537, despite $2000 in 2016 terms having a purchasing power of about $2632 in today’s money. Some of that is due to advances in manufacturing.
However, this affordability relies on secret operating system technology that Swinburne University digital media professor Ramon Lobato calls “basically a form of spyware”.
“We expect our viewing to be private, but TV is now becoming part of a larger digital ad-tech system,” Lobato said.
Initial price drops began roughly 20 years ago stemming from manufacturing advancements in things like LCD screen manufacturing driving strong price competition, but the mid-2010s arrival of internet-connected smart TVs accelerated the deflation.
That allowed manufacturers to insert ads within menus and on ad-supported streaming channels preinstalled on TVs. Paid ads also appear as recommended content banners within TV operating systems such as VIDAA, majority owned by Hisense. A 2023 RMIT study – authored by Lobato – surveying smart TV owners found just 45 per cent were able to identify such banners as paid advertisements.
Beyond disguised ads, TVs now come equipped with Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology to harvest and sell user data.
Enabled by default during set-up, ACR takes a screenshot every second of whatever is displayed – including web browsing, streaming apps, gaming, DVDs or mirrored laptops – matching it to content databases.
“The major manufacturers have invested significantly in ACR tech over the last decade,” Lobato said of the technology that can recognise specific series, live sports and gaming titles being played.
“ACR is basically a form of spyware – consumers should opt out wherever possible,” said Lobato, who has authored an upcoming book, Smart TV, on the technology and economics of the medium.
ACR’s constant surveillance, which packages users into very specific “segments” and records their IP addresses, allows for highly lucrative ad targeting.
“Users who watch travel shows and boomer-era sitcoms might be assumed to be high net worth retirees – a great market for cruise line ads,” Lobato said. People who watch Bloomberg’s financial programming might be targeted with ads for stock brokerages or luxury cars; heavy viewing of Bluey followed by the evening news could indicate parents in the market for children’s products and toys.