Some Ads Play on Streaming Services Even When the TV Is Off, Study Finds (wsj.com) 118
Many commercials continue to play on ad-supported streaming services after viewers turn off their television, new research shows, a problem that is causing an estimated waste of more than $1 billion a year for brands. From a report: The findings come as an ever-growing share of ad dollars is shifting from traditional TV to streaming platforms, a trend that is likely to accelerate now that industry giants Netflix and Walt Disney's Disney+ have embraced the idea of offering an ad-supported version of their services. Some 17% of ads shown on televisions connected through a streaming device -- including streaming boxes, dongles, sticks and gaming consoles -- are playing while the TV is off, according to a study by WPP's ad-buying giant GroupM and ad-measurement firm iSpot.tv.
That is because when a TV set is turned off, it doesn't always send a signal to the streaming device connected to the TV through its HDMI port, GroupM said. As a result, the streaming device will continue playing the show and its ads unless users had exited or paused the streaming app they were watching before turning off their TV. Due to the nature of the problem, using a smart TV -- on which streaming apps are loaded -- makes it far less likely that ads would be shown while the TV is off, since in this instance the television and streaming device are just a single piece of hardware. GroupM said it found "virtually no incidence" of the issue on smart TV apps. The study, which included smart TVs and some hooked up with a streaming device, found that on average, between 8% and 10% of all streaming ads were shown while the TV was off.
That is because when a TV set is turned off, it doesn't always send a signal to the streaming device connected to the TV through its HDMI port, GroupM said. As a result, the streaming device will continue playing the show and its ads unless users had exited or paused the streaming app they were watching before turning off their TV. Due to the nature of the problem, using a smart TV -- on which streaming apps are loaded -- makes it far less likely that ads would be shown while the TV is off, since in this instance the television and streaming device are just a single piece of hardware. GroupM said it found "virtually no incidence" of the issue on smart TV apps. The study, which included smart TVs and some hooked up with a streaming device, found that on average, between 8% and 10% of all streaming ads were shown while the TV was off.
And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:5, Insightful)
Even when the viewer is in the bathroom.
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Terrible, right? What a sad, sad times we're living in!
Re:And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:5, Informative)
The difference is that it cost the user nothing to have broadcast ads playing when they were in the bathroom - but today there's ISP costs, bandwidth limits, etc. For the advertiser, it didn't cost them that much extra, because the advertisements were broadcast, and not unicast to every person on the planet whether they watch or not. Even worse for the person paying for the ads, there's probably someone out there checking it off as seen by a viewer.
I do know that my internet speeds are much better when ads are block. On my older phone it's a distinctly noticeable change when scripts are block and ads are verboten.
Re: And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:2)
Well, it costs the user some electricity, also if the box is left on there's a cost for the user. But it's marginal.
Now if the ISPs gang together against ad providers and charge them to forward their traffic it's going to get interesting.
But realistically the ad providers could just realize that the ads are probably ignored anyway and stuff the statistics. People are tired of being tracked and getting junk pushed at them all the time. Targeted ads are often useless because they show stuff you recently bough
network neutrality laws are needed before ISP's tr (Score:2)
network neutrality laws are needed before ISP's try an apple an ask for 30% of any e-com sale over there network.
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I understand streaming services such as spotify pay per play or something.
Not sure if other streaming services also have such payment plans to IP owners. And am sure every stream is logged somewhere, for analytics, etc as well.
So looks like this issue with ads being played "invisibly" also affects the actual content. And that can skew viewership figures, etc as well.
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So it sounds like you're advocating for greater adoption of IP multicast [wikipedia.org]...
Re: And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:2)
I imagine a similar issue with YouTube given how Google will after a while re-activate auto play, even if the user keeps disabling it. As well as adverts potentially playing to an unattended device, auto play can be a serious issue on capped cell data networks.
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This is also why the time shifting lawsuits against the VCR was so critical. Anyone recording a show can skip commercials. There was a win in the lawsuits for firms renting consumers DVRs and allowing them to stream recording.
To be fair,
Re:And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:4, Funny)
In the old days ... have sex with your date. Some of these breaks are 3 minutes long.
So what am I gonna do for the other 2 minutes?
Re: And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:1)
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To be fair, your streaming stick really does not know when your TV is off.
Mine does. Samsung sees my Android TV stick as a Anynet+ device, same as my Switch. When I turn on my Android TV device, my TV turns on. If I turn on my TV and it is connected to the appropriate HDMI port, it turns on my streaming device. If I turn off either my TV or Android device, they turn each other off (assuming the device is the currently selected HDMI port.
I don't know if other TV brands communicate with the device, but all three of the Samsung TVs I have used work the same way. (Not an ad. Ju
Re: And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:2)
Some TVs lie about their on/off status to improve performance after coming out of power-save. Blame HDCP... if the TV tells the stick, "I'm turning off", the stick requires re-authentication (which imposes about 2 *seconds* of blue-screen limbo) when it comes back on.
In theory, a TV/sink can be honest to the stick/source & ask it to keep the connection "hot" (authenticated)... but in the real world, it malfunctions more often than it actually works properly, because "working properly" also depends upon
Re:And ads play on broadcast TV (Score:4, Informative)
There is no 100% way to know, but the HDMI standard (but the origin is actually from the PC) does have a way to signal back.
There are a few control lines - DDC to be specific - it provides +5V, ground, and I2C. The source device (streaming stick) provides the 5V and ground, and this is supposed to power a little I2C ROM to which the source and figure out what kind of signal to output. Conversely, a signal going the other way, called HPD (Hot Plug Detect) is pulled low by the source device via a very weak pull down. The sink device (e.g., TV) pulls it high via a 1K resistor.
The point being, when the sink is off, it should stop asserting HPD, telling the source device there is nothing at the other end of the link.
For some things, like HDCP, it is essential to know this because it means the sink device will stop HDCP state machine execution and to shut down HDCP. Streaming sticks using HDCP should know this so they can stop playback because the lack of HDCP will cause a state machine error in short order.
It's not 100% because some TVs when they're off, will keep the HDCP parts still powered up in an attempt to be quick on resuming content playback as it can take a few seconds for the whole HDCP negotiation and other parts to fully sync up, so they keep sync while off to make it really quick.
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And even when the TV is off.
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Don't worry. Some retard will claim you are "stealing ad revenue" by using an pseudo ad blocker via going to the bathroom. /s
--
#JusticeForActMan
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Just wait, they will be wanted a camera to check that you are watching and no off taking a dump or looking at your phone. Otherwise it's theft, right?
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MoviePass patented that. Apparently when it relaunches, you'll have to watch 20 minutes of commercials straight to qualify for a ticket, and if you look away, the commercial pauses.
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Someone will make a video of them staring into a camera, and upload it to YouTube so people can point their phones at it for 20 minutes.
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Fortunately both these "problems" can be solved. With cameras.
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"Don't you just hate it when Jews get Jewed by other Jews?"
Mel Gibson, is that you again?
Here's more bad news for advertisers (Score:5, Insightful)
Even when the TV is on, people go for a piss during the commercials.
Even when people don't go for a piss, they skip the commercial whenever they can. Or change the channel. Or zone out when they're absolutely forced to sit it out.
Not one like advertisement. No one has ever liked advertisement. People have learned to divert their attention or shut off their brain when they can't avoid it. It's been that way ever since advertisement became obnoxious - about 5 minutes after it was invented.
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I get pissed off when I see commercials and don't buy the product.
Re: Here's more bad news for advertisers (Score:1)
I get pissed off when I see commercials and don't buy the product.
That's the intent; you feel happy when you do buy their product, and unhappy when you don't. You could try simply not buying the products you see ads for, but that still means you're a desirable target because if you don't remember to boycott them you're paying enough attention to subconsciously purchase their brand because it seems familiar to you.
Re: Here's more bad news for advertisers (Score:4, Insightful)
You misunderstood what he said: he didn't say he felt unhappy because he saw the commercial but was unable to get the product. He said he makes a mental note of who pissed him off with the fucking commercial and intentionally doesn't buy the product out of spite.
I know because that's what I do. I go exceptionally out of my way to not see, hear or read any commercian. But when one slips through, I'll go out of my way to boycott that brand.
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Commercials are 20th century technology. These days it's better to send your product out for review as widely as possible. I have some people on YouTube and some websites I trust to give honest, thorough reviews, so that's the only way you can get past all my ad blockers.
Of course, if your product is shit this probably isn't going to work. That's a good thing.
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So you boycott by pot luck based on your own mistakes? That's kind of stupid. Unless you think that there is a single company anywhere in the world that doesn't advertise, that really is stupid.
Why not just make it easy. Pick a brand a random, and flip a coin. Heads you boycott them for completely stupid reasons, tails you don't.
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PSAs run by public utilities (Score:2)
When your local electric power company runs a public service announcement (PSA) about calling before you dig or staying away from downed lines or whatever else, how do you go about boycotting electric power? Or when all three grocery stores within cycling range run commercials, how do you go about boycotting all of them?
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Well, one way is to drop the account with the utility company
I don't know of many groups other than the Amish who are willing to drop home electric power service.
As far as the grocery store, you could have items shipped to you.
Good luck with that when the grocery delivery services are also running advertisements.
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You might be able to run only on solar these days...
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I don't watch local channels so I probably won't see those types of ads.
Re:Here's more bad news for advertisers (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Here's more bad news for advertisers (Score:4, Insightful)
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And this should tell you everything you need to know about "big data". There's so much data people don't have a frigging clue what to do with it, and offer you the dumbest things.
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If I somehow see ads for those things I definitely won't buy them, because as well as subverting my clear preference for not seeing ads (enforced by ad blockers) I figure that if they were any good they wouldn't need to advertise.
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That's the thing, though. A good ad is one you're not even conscious of. You walk into a store and you end up buying something you didnt really need, or something from one brand over another. The whole process seemed perfectly innocuous and independent.
Yet, something got you into that store to buy that specific product from that specific brand. And that was a good, well made and well-timed ad that your brain didnt register as such.
That's the vile part about advertisement.
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The point is the tv is off and the streaming device is sucking your power and bandwidth.
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Oh great, now you've told them so they will start doing facial rec to make sure we're looking at the screen and paying attention.
Re: Here's more bad news for advertisers (Score:1)
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Even when the TV is on, people go for a piss during the commercials.
Even when people don't go for a piss, they skip the commercial whenever they can. Or change the channel. Or zone out when they're absolutely forced to sit it out.
Not one like advertisement. No one has ever liked advertisement. People have learned to divert their attention or shut off their brain when they can't avoid it. It's been that way ever since advertisement became obnoxious - about 5 minutes after it was invented.
I think the difference between broadcast TV and streaming is that streaming services can sell ads based on number of views rather than time slots. So this is really gaming the system to say "we really did show your ad to 50,000 unique viewers 3 times apiece, buy another 200,000 ads from us".
Honestly not surprised, advertising is a shady business at the best of times. A lot of them are ex-journalists looking for a more honest career.
OK Fine (Score:2)
Ugh, who cares (Score:2)
Who cares, ads being played never guaranteed somebody watched them. And everything is factored-in, you pay for your ads in competition with others, having done your homework about the value of the ads to you - including facts such as so many people who record impressions don't actually watch it etc.
What is annoying to me though is exactly the fact that the device does not know the TV is off. I am using chromecast with a Panasonic LCD TV, streaming from Plex or Netfix usually, and when I turn off the TV chro
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The superbowl commercial is a massive outlier though. The media has turned that into a spectacle all of its own. People who don't care about the superbowl at all will still tune in to watch this commercial to see what the fuss is about, largely because of the media coverage, mostly centred around the ad's insane budget. The superbowl commercial is now, arguably, an event.
I have just the solution (Score:3)
https://www.amazon.com/Extensi... [amazon.com]
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if people aren't stopping their shows with the remote and just turning off the TV, what makes you think they are going to get up and flick a physical switch?
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When I first noticed that most other countries don't have switched sockets I thought it was odd. In the UK every wall socket has a switch, with very few exceptions.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inver... [amazon.co.uk]
Sometimes they get hidden behind furniture so can be difficult to get at, but the option is there at least. I have a few foot switches for hidden sockets.
Oh no! What a terrible news! (Score:3)
No way! Advertisers are losing money on advertising which is not wanted in the first place! What a terrible, terrible news! Great for the viewer, though. Get off my lawn.
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No way! Advertisers are losing money on advertising which is not wanted in the first place! What a terrible, terrible news! Great for the viewer, though. Get off my lawn.
the viewer still have to give away his bandwidth to supply the ad to the TV, so not that much of a win..
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I get unlimited data. I'm almost tempted to set up some kind of ad 'watcher' box just to 'play' ads to a nonexistent screen for the sole purpose of costing advertisers money.
I won't, because I don't want to waste the electricity.
It's not like I see many ads anyway, they almost never manage to make it through the layers of blockers.
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And....so? Is this a problem? (Score:2)
"Some Ads Play on Streaming Services Even When the TV Is Off, Study Finds"
Is this a problem? Because *I* don't really see a problem here.
Anything that wastes ad dollars and bankrupts advertising companies is a good thing in my opinion.
Now I'm tempted to find the most ad-laden channel(s) and let them stream 24/7. It won't cost me anything but hopefully it'll help ratfuck the advertisers.
Re: And....so? Is this a problem? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I'd rather we maintain the illusion and not have to pay subscription fees for everything. For example, I don't eat fast food so I'm more than happy to let the big chains subsidize my TV and pass the costs along to someone else who does.
Sure, let them shout into the Void all they want.
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Some Ads Play on Streaming Services Even When the TV Is Off, Study Finds
[a problem that is causing an estimated waste of more than $1 billion a year for brands.]
Is this a problem? Because *I* don't really see a problem here.
Anything that wastes ad dollars and bankrupts advertising companies is a good thing in my opinion.
In addition, companies are certainly free to *not* run ads/commercials ... no one is forcing them to "waste" their money.
Re: And....so? Is this a problem? (Score:1)
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That will just be another point against humanity when the machines turn against us.
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Good point.
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It is also eating your own power and data for the privilege of allowing some scumfuck to run their shit on your streaming device. Aggregated, that's a shitload of unnecessary power burn.
As your username suggests, you may be too stupid to grok this as a problem or too close to death to actually give a fuck, and that's fine, but please, keep your ignorant, impotent ass the fuck out of this conversation. You are the useful, unquestioning and passive idiot these marketing cockslaps rely upon to get up in a line
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Oh no, a frothy little boy with an eDgY username is upset on the internet. boo hoo
Weenies like you whine about the power consumption of a cable box but turn a blind eye towards the trillions of watts wasted on bitcoin mining.
Anyway, I can't really be bothered to respond to the blather in your post, but thanks for the rant- it brought a smile to my face.
Have a nice day and don't forget to hug your waifu pillow.
Power saver outlet will easily take care of it.. (Score:2)
And I was wondering... (Score:3)
I was wondering how it was possible for only the Ads to play but not the actual content....
So this boils down to "people leave streaming devices running"
Pretty much shows the priorities.
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Pretty much shows the priorities.
Actually I think it more shows the expectations of technology. For us it's a given when I turn off the TV that the streamer will automatically pause when it gets a signal that the TV disconnected. It's when that technology fails that this crap happens.
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In that case, the results of the study would have been "Lots of streaming content plays without anyone watching" and not "Lots of streaming ads play without anyone watching"
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Greed, is Smart. Don't assume. (Score:2)
"...using a smart TV -- on which streaming apps are loaded -- makes it far less likely that ads would be shown while the TV is off, since in this instance the television and streaming device are just a single piece of hardware."
Don't assume the exact same flavor of Greed won't infect those "single" pieces of hardware.
While we're at it, don't assume that OFF is actually a default consumer state for any modern electronic device. Most of them, seem to be doing nothing but sleeping with one internet eye open all the time.
Use the USB port on the TV (Score:2)
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commercials are when I pick up my phone or tablet and surf until the commercial is over...
It seems to me that all the channels have their commercials on at the same time as each other to foil that, unless the channel is a 100% ad anyway.
File Under: News that Doesn't Matter (Score:1)
Everyone has already pointed out nobody cares about this. Someone said this would drive the advertising companies out of business.. oh? Isn't the product manufacturer really the one paying for the ad space? I guess if nobody makes commercials anymore that would drive them out of business, but I doubt that will ever happen.
consumes limited data (Score:2)
And consumes limited data for many,
There is a shift to app content that consumes bandwidth.
The autoplay feature can play on if the TV is off and the cable box is on and on and on and on and on.
This just in... (Score:2)
If you just turn the volume down on your car stereo.... It keeps playing.
Is this a slow news day or what? I feel dumber for commenting on this.
Those "free" streaming channels (Score:3)
I've found this out when my wife was using IMDB streaming with the firestick. She would fall a sleep and the damn thing would run all night if I didn't turn it off.
I didn't initially dawn on me until my ISP complained about my data usage. Then I started paying more attention and low and behold, found out some of these channels just run constantly.
Clearly their business model is selling ads where Netflix is selling subs. I'd rather just pay the monthly sub, spare me the ads and don't let the damn thing run indefinitely sucking down bandwidth.
Re: Those "free" streaming channels (Score:2)
YouTube does the same. While you can disable auto play, it's only temporary. YouTube automatically re-enables the feature without warning. To call them arseholes is a slur against anybody else who has ever borne the same insult.
Clickbait and bizarre focus on ads (Score:1)
"Turning off the TV does not turn off every device connected to the TV - it is possible that someone can turn off the TV, and the device connected to the TV such as a gaming console remains on!"
"Oh, the device connected to the TV may attempt to play advertisements"
What's the point of this absolute non-news?
Hey, I have an idea. Turning off your monitor should automatically force an instant shutdown of your PC. After all, there is some chance that you could turn off your monitor without turning off your PC.
Feels like the very own Slashdot site (Score:2)
With the "opt out" button taking you to their slashmedia site and offering a few links for target advertisement opt out, three of these does not work (return a 404 Not Found) and the one who works does not opt you out anyway.
Great way companies use to promote your business, by annoying people.
Max Headroom (Score:2)
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Watch out for blipverts
Interesting (Score:3)
Wonder what other big tech and social media #'s are phony?
Guess SEC is to busy doing Equity, Social Justice and ESG stuff to care.
Confucius level question... (Score:2)
The road side hoardings and the ads at the back of the cash register slips never see the light of the day ...
Are "ads" not a complete waste anyways? (Score:4, Informative)
I mean, they have stopped asking victims a long time ago whether they are more likely to buy something as a result of seeing an ad and only go for brand recognition in evaluating ad "effectiveness" these days. The whole thing is a scam and makes the world a worse place.
Lol, the "billable hours" of advertising? (Score:2)
I'm curious if the creators of this were inspired by unscrupulous corporate lawyers. (Lots of my classmates became lawyers, and they're great people. I'm not generalizing!)
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Lots of my classmates became lawyers, and they're great people.
So they made you sign that NDA, eh?
Is it just me? (Score:1)
I smell an opportunity (Score:2)
"That is because when a TV set is turned off, it doesn't always send a signal to the streaming device connected to the TV through its HDMI port...
I've never wanted to write programs (my expertise begins and ends with occasional batch files), but this is a case where I really wish I had some training. I would cheerfully write and maintain a freeware program/firmware mod that did this for you. Given how relentlessly our private information is harvested and used to target us with advertising, I would love
I have a solution (Score:2)
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We could recover the loss by having Pay-per-view events where hunters with high power rifle hunt down the now superfluous marketing people.
Well yeah there has been articles a few years ago. (Score:2)
... claiming that a high double digit percentage of video ads are fraud.
Here's a more current article on that:
https://cheq.ai/ultimate-guide... [cheq.ai]
perhaps!! (Score:2)
perhaps all addverts should run when the TV is off, thus fixing both problems. people who hate watching adds don;t have to, and robots that believe/work in marketing can congratulate themselves for having popular adds.
Why are there ads on streaming services? (Score:2)
Why are there ads on paid streaming services at all? We have a problem with way too many advertisements anyways.
Morons, please get a clue (Score:4)
Why the hell do you think we went away from cable TV and moved towards you?
TV is outdated (Score:1)
Computer as Entertainment Box, Block TV to Net (Score:2)
I don't connect my TV to my network. In fact I block its MAC address in my router. I have a computer that I connect my TV to, and I connect to any streaming service I subscribe to from the computer browser. I don't trust 'Smart' TVs. I know when I close my browser and/or turn off my entertainment computer, that it is really off.
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Not all TVs will provide that data to the device.