Samsung Smart TV users are complaining that advertisements are being inserted into locally-stored programmes and films without their permission.
The reports comes just days after controversial news that Samsung’s SmartTV’s can record personal conversations and send the data to third parties when using its TV voice recognition feature.
On the community website Reddit Australian users complained that when they used the Plex app on their Samsung TVs a Pepsi video ad popped up halfway through.
One Reddit user posted:
“Every movie I play, 20-30 minutes in it plays the Pepsi ad, no audio but crisp clear ad. It has happened on 6 movies today,”
A Samsung spokesperson told The Telegraph that placing ads in third-party apps was a mistake that only affected people in Australia.
“We are aware of a situation that has caused some Smart TV users in Australia to experience programme interruption in the form of an advertisement,” Samsung said.
“This seems to be caused by an error, and we are currently conducting a full and thorough investigation into the cause as our top priority. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced by our customers.”
Samsung Electronics Australia issued a statement stating that the problem has been addressed:
“Samsung Electronics Australia is aware of an issue that has caused some Samsung Smart TV users to experience program interruption in the form of a Pepsi advertisement.
This was a result of an error that occurred as part of a recent software update that was not intended for the Australian market.
We can confirm that the issue has now been rectified and that there are currently no plans to introduce this type of advertising in Australia in the near future. Samsung Electronics Australia would like to apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused to our customers.”
