Honestly I think it's just a shit idea. Only way I could see it flying is if you heavily (or completely) subsidized the cost of the television. There's already a company giving away free ad supported TVs.
Oh yeah it's obviously a shit idea, but that generally doesn't stop executives when they think there's money to be made – considering how eg. YouTube's trying to stop you from blocking ads and will apparently start showing ads when videos are paused, requiring attention seems like a logical next step to drive that CPM up to fund the CEO's new yacht
It’s crazy that this is real. It looks like a comic someone would make to make fun of the idea. Like the fact that they’re watching some guy shoot someone, then the burger commercial comes on and the guy stands up and cheers “McDonalds!” Before sitting back down to watch more of guy shooting other guy.
This is peak “dumb Americans” humor, and they’re using this unironically to describe their business idea.
Gary M. Zalewski is listed as the inventor. He is listed on 99 patents, several of which are related to increasing advertising proliferation and penetration. He's basically a driver of enshittification. My favorite was "System and method for taking control of a system during a commercial break". Can't have the plebs changing channels!
I mean, Telly is giving away TVs that have a camera and second screen to play ads. Sony might not think they could get away with it a decade ago, but consumers seem to slowly accept more bullshit over time so I could definitely see their calculus changing in the future.
Oh it has a second screen… have to answer ~100 questions about your viewing habits to get it… so they must only ship to likely profitable demographics. Yeah pretty much hate it :D