Google pilots a row of ads on the Android TV home screen of Sony smart TVs, Xiaomi's Mi Box 3, and others; users say they cannot disable the ads
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2019 pilot is one step in a decade-long Google push onto the television: after Google Fiber experimented with targeted TV ads in 2015 and a video ad platform arrived in 2016, the Android TV home screen becomes the next surface. What makes this round contentious is placement and control — the ads sit on Sony and Xiaomi devices' primary interface, and users report no way to turn them off.
The pilot proved durable rather than experimental: by 2024 Google was letting advertisers run targeted ads across Google TV's 125+ free channels on a reported 20M+ US monthly active devices, and in 2025 Roku owners reported autoplaying video ads before reaching the home screen.
First-order effects
- Owners of Sony smart TVs, Xiaomi's Mi Box 3, and other Android TV devices get an ad row on their default home screen with no opt-out, since Google controls the launcher software regardless of who built the hardware.
- Google gains a live test of home-screen ad inventory on third-party-branded hardware, measuring engagement before deciding whether to make the format standard.
Second-order effects
- Rival TV platforms face pressure to match the monetization: Roku's later autoplaying home-screen ads show the format spreading across operating systems once one vendor normalizes it.
- Hardware makers like Sony and Xiaomi cede their most valuable screen real estate to Google's ad business, trading brand control of the launcher for the Android TV platform's app ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the smart TV home screen consolidates as an ad platform owned by the OS vendor rather than the TV manufacturer — the 2024 expansion of targeted ads across Google TV's free-channel lineup shows the pilot scaling into core inventory.
- Users' inability to disable the ads points toward advertising becoming a structural feature of subsidized TV software, with the practical remedy shifting from settings menus to choosing a different platform.
The trend: Television operating systems are converting the home screen into first-party ad inventory, with the platform owner — not the hardware brand — controlling what users see first.