Isn't it literally just one row of app suggestions that you can just move to the bottom of your channels list? Or is it something new?
Surely this is no worse than Amazon giving you an advert every time you open Prime Video even though you spend hundreds of pounds on that over a year.
/r/assholedesign
Android TV Core Services - go comment here with your pitchforks etc!
It doesn't matter if it is a multi thousand dollar TV, Xiaomi Mi Box or Shield TV.
We bought that devices and we pay rental and streaming services according to law. They make money from all of them harvesting data of any interaction we make.
Go to your Google Activity settings site and see they collect how many times, ip, time, name of device interact, what apps you open etc.
Android TV collects every move, interaction and app.
But still they want to display ads.
It's not a bug it's a whole section after latest Core Services update through play store as Promotional Content in settings.
This is infuriating. I've actually been looking at getting a Sony TV specifically because it was one of the only brands you can get without ads built-in.
I haven't noticed anything on my Nexus Player yet, thankfully, but I also use an ad blocker.
Im still on 7.0 with Sony tv dat is worth a 1000$
the most frustrating part of dealing with Google is that they never seem to give adequate feedback or explanations for their actions
Its always just an error or a bug or an update that was pushed out by accident
Where is the statement from Google other than a statement on XDA saying its a part of some 'pilot program' BS?
Article was updated with statement from nvidia:
UPDATE: NVIDIA STATEMENT Nvidia says this should not be showing up on the Shield and sent over the following statement: "A “sponsored” row that can’t be disabled has shown up on some Android TV devices. This row is not on SHIELD TV devices.
SHIELD does have a new Google Play channel (Apps Spotlight) at the bottom of the screen, but this can disabled by scrolling to “Customize channels” and selecting “Promotional channels.”"
Does this still show up if you use a 3rd party launcher?
I haven't seen this on my Shield yet.
It's a pilot program by Google. Meaning it's small scale and possibly only temporary. No need to worry too much for now. Hope it gets reversed or at least up to manufacturers to decide if they want it or not
It's not a bug, it's a feature!
Minor annoyance. I've disabled it from appearing on my shields.
Honestly, I'm slightly amused by this. The FireTV has been doing this shit since it entered the market and I've been bitching about ti since day 1 and constantly downvoted/told it's a non-issue. Now Google's doing it and errybody's mad.
If you didn't see this coming, then you're a fool. Google makes far too much money advertising to not tap the AndroidTV market as a way to make more.
You can disable the row in the settings. I had it pop up on my screen. Disabled it and now it's gone.
Not sure what the big deal is.
Most of my clients with these TVs will never ever use the TVs Android UI for switching between their Apple TV and DirecTV so thankfully it's no big deal.
... and Phillips smart TVs, and Nvidia Shields and Xiaomi Mi TV boxes and pretty much every other device running Android TV 8.0.
Not sure why Sony is being singled out here, that was/is Google's doing.