Archive: https://archive.today/LXpYk From the post: >>Televisions have become unusually affordable for the hardware and features you get. Part of the reason for those low sticker prices is that the business model for manufacturers has changed: a modern smart TV is no longer just a screen you buy once, but a connected platform that can keep generating revenue through services, recommendations, advertising, and personal viewing data. Recent corporate acquisitions show how extraordinarily valuable viewing data has become. Fox's reported $22 billion deal to acquire Roku is, at least in part, a bet on Roku's access to millions of viewing households and the targeted advertising business built around them. Walmart's $2.3 billion acquisition of Vizio tells a similar story from the retail side: Vizio's own earnings materials showed its device business generating negative gross profit while its advertising, data, and services business generated the company's positive gross profit. Walmart's integration of Vizio brings that TV platform into a much larger retail advertising ecosystem, helping close the loop between viewing habits, targeted advertising, and future purchases.