Walmart Buying Vizio Sealed the Fate of Your Smart TV

Walmart just bought TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion. Now, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you just scrolled right on past that headline the other day. You might be surprised to learn I am not here to try to convince you that you should care. But I think that you’re gonna want to know what’s about to happen to your smart TV, no matter what brand it is.

ALSO WATCH

READ MORE

NIT-NERDS MERCH AVAILBLE HERE!

BEHIND THE SCENES

SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS
Each of the partners listed below has been integral in helping our channel continue to grow. We love their products and think you will too, please help support them by checking out the links below.

SUBSCRIBE FOR THE LATEST VIDEOS

VISIT DIGITAL TRENDS

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our channels.

FOLLOW US!

#hometheater #vizio #walmart #digitaltrends #tech #technology #technews #tvs #smarttv #streaming

[Caleb_Denison]

Hi everyone! Vizio has requested that I clarify that while Vizio's smart TV experience is now referred to as Vizio Home or Vizio Home Screen, the platform itself, at least internally at a corporate level, is still referred to as SmartCast, therefore Walmart's reference to SmartCast in its press release is neither comical nor out-of-touch as I suggested it to be in the video.

[JGKingCrusher]

The very reason we loved things like Netflix, Amazon, etc. was to get away from the ads. They pushed it until they dealt the DVD sales a huge blow, then put commercials back in. I really hope there is a huge financial backlash on these companies.

[igorschmidlapp]

I don't buy smart TVs. I prefer dumb TVs with a lot of HDMI inputs...

[richardkarl]

If memory serves me correctly, there was a TV show in the 1980s called Max Headroom. A side story in the show was that people were paid to watch TV commercials. TV stations monitored the consumption of TV commercials where their success was measured by how many commercials were watched and by how many people. The people who watched these commercials were paid a small fee. The more they watched commercials the money they made and the higher the station ratings were. That dystopian future is now reversed where we have to pay not to watch commercials even though 99% are irrelevant to our personal lives.

[PBradleyRobb]

Ah, the accelerated enshitification of smart tvs.

[johnr]

I own a couple Vizio smart TVs. I run Roku boxes and over the air antennas. Yes I'm old. With their latest update, their SmartCast took over the tuning of the antenna input and put it in a menu format. Doing so created delays in switching channels and loss of video signal to the point some stations were not received any longer. So, out of spite, I disconnected my TV from the internet. I refuse to let someone else control something that I bought years ago without giving me an option.

[ryanjones]

I think advertisement has too much reach in the U.S., there's over saturation of it and it's absolutely everywhere to the point that it's off-putting.

[jp]

In the 90s I worked for an ad company in SF that specialized in custom video ads beamed and streamed on TVs in Walmart stores. Having a captive home audience has always been in their sights.

[Mango_B]

They will drive customers AWAY with constant ad bombardment.

[TheGamingNinja]

This is why it’s important to buy physical media. Get the movies you want in true 4k with no ads, better sound and you never have to worry if it goes to a different streaming platform. The only negative for now is that many shows don’t have a physical release.

[ThePilottribune]

I don't ever use the "Smart" part of my TV's. In fact, I don't even connect them to the internet after getting it all set up. Just turn off the wifi or unplug the ethernet cable and no more "Smart" TV. I use either my Roku Ultra or Apple TV to stream my stuff. Every now and then I'll reconnect to check for updates, but otherwise my "Smart" TV's are rather dumb.

[zentec]

when I see too many ads I actively ignore the product or service.

[online_now]

When Vizio first came out their TVs were phenomenal and lasted forever. We still have some running from 2006, the past 5 years Vizio has been trash...

[michaelbeckerman]

Caleb, you made mention of the fact that "advertising always works" but there's another side to that story: advertising blowback. In today's modern world, people are so entirely sick and tired of being marketed to 24x7 everywhere they look that many of them will take their revenge on advertisers by going out of their way NOT to purchase things that are constantly shoved in their face, just to spite them. Ever hear anyone say, "I'm so sick and tired of watching that damn ad from X company. I swear to GOD I hate those people. I will NEVER buy one of their products, no matter what, as long as I live!" Well, sure. That company got that person to remember them, but they also made a life-long ENEMY out of them. Great job there, guys! That's the dirty little secret that no one ever wants to talk about in the advertising industry: when you over-advertise to people they actively seek to take their REVENGE on you for annoying the living hell out of them and guess what their weapon of choice is to strike back at you? Their WALLET!

[joycedudzinski]

Bought a TV from Walmart a couple of years ago. Hooked it up to an air antenna.
Started watching channels that I like, but eventually it was the same shows that repeated over and over again.
I am unplugged the TV for over a year and recently I plugged it back in to see what was on there.
Turned out, when I rescanned the channels it was the same shows that repeated from the last time I had the TV on.
There was one new channel that shows older 30, 40, 50 films. This is the only reason the unit is still plugged in now.

[cigarobsession]

Get a shield pro, use a better, free launcher. No more platform ads. I never use my TVs as anything more than a straight display panel, they aren’t even on the network.

[stinkywiselteets]

I used to work for an electronics/circuit board manufacturer. We would have training classes every two or three years. Our trainer told us in one training class, to never buy a TV from Walmart! It may be a name brand TV, but when they are manufactured for Walmart, they are made cheaper.

[TearlessGosling]

There is a really cool thing where you can buy a modern tv, leave it off the internet, hook it up to a PC; and never have to see ads again. My a95k will never get connected to the internet, and Sony is really good about offering offline firmware updates that are installed via USB.

[banjocricketusa]

When a chain store has enough money to purchase a 2.3 billion dollar company, it's clear to me their retail prices are way too high.

[pablsauced]

At this rate, in 40 years toilets will have a little screen that makes you watch an ad before you can even flush💀