This smart TV brand crossed a big line with its absurd ad antics

Ads might be a fact of life these days, and won’t come as much of a surprise if you’re watching a free streaming service. That doesn’t make them any less annoying, like YouTube’s new unskippable TV ads, which are pushing viewers’ patience. But some owners of Hisense TVs say ads have crossed an entirely different line by appearing when they perform basic actions, such as switching inputs or changing channels.

According to reports collated by Tom’s Hardware, some Hisense TV owners say their sets have begun showing ads when switching HDMI inputs, turning the TV on, navigating to the home screen, or even changing channels. Many of the affected devices appear to run the company’s VIDAA smart TV platform, which was recently rebranded as Home OS.

User reports suggest the issue isn’t new. Threads on Reddit dating back several years describe ads appearing in system menus or during startup, while more recent posts claim full-screen ads now appear when switching inputs. Some users say they were able to disable the ads by contacting Hisense support and providing their TV’s unique device ID, raising questions about how the ads are being delivered in the first place.

Spanish outlets El Español and La Razón recently covered similar complaints from TV owners in Spain. According to those reports, some users were even seeing ads appearing when changing channels.

Hisense has responded in a statement, saying the ads were part of a limited “spot test” conducted in Spain through the VIDAA platform. The company said the test was meant to evaluate advertising formats tied to free content and insisted that it didn’t prevent users from using their TVs normally. According to the company, the trial has now ended.

However, the number and geographic spread of complaints make the situation a little less clear-cut. As Tom’s Hardware notes, the reports appear to span several countries and years, which doesn’t entirely align with the idea of a short-lived regional test. Let us know in the comments if your Hisense TV has shown ads while you were performing basic functions.