Your math on that is bad. You can't use the profit ratios, you have to look at the revenue. Making a TV costs more than selling ads on one does. From the ear

Your math on that is bad. You can't use the profit ratios, you have to look at the revenue. Making a TV costs more than selling ads on one does. From the earnings report referenced in your linked article (https://investors.vizio.com/news/news-details/2021/VIZIO-HOLDING-CORP.-Reports-Q3-2021-Financial-Results/default.aspx https://investors.vizio.com/news/news-details/2021/VIZIO-HOL...): Overall revenue: 588.3 M$ Overall profit: 82.9 M$ Overall margin: 14.1% Ad Revenue: 85.9 M$ Ad Profits: 57.3 M$ Ad margin: 66.7% and making a simplifying assumption that all non-ad revenue is from making and selling TVs: TV alone revenue: 502.4 M$ TV alone profit: 25.6 M$ TV alone margin: 5.1% So, yeah, the margins on ads are much much higher than on making the TV itself. However, if we were to look at the counterfactual for just making the TV and selling it at the same overall margin without ads (14.1%), the TV would only need to cost (14.1% - 5.1%) = 9% more. Not anywhere close to 3x.