TV companies don't make $1k for the spyware, nowhere near that. Vizio for exmaple in 2021 made 85% of its revenue from selling the TV, just 15% from the "platf

TV companies don't make $1k for the spyware, nowhere near that. Vizio for exmaple in 2021 made 85% of its revenue from selling the TV, just 15% from the "platform". If the $400 TV was instead $470 they would make the same. These scam companies just see it as "free profit" on top of a captive audience. PC manufacturers used to do this, with Microsoft's consent. Buy a laptop 20 years ago and you would get tons of shovelware from Dell which made them a few extra pennies. Nowadays I believe Microsoft themselves got into the game. Companies aren't happy with making a product for $50 and selling it for $60 (or $200 or whatever), they have to make a little more by double-dipping. This is of course partly the consumer to blame -- they just look at the headline price. Buy the plane ticket for the lowest price on the middleman interface, but then it's $15 'check-in fee', $50 'landing-fee' etc, but that doesn't matter because look at the shiny advert for $9.99*