- Walmart has completed its acquisition of Vizio
- Vizio makes more money from advertising than it does from selling TVs
- Walmart plans to watch what you watch
Earlier this year we reported that Walmart was acquiring Vizio’s TV business, and that purchase has now cleared all the hurdles. That means Walmart is about to make it big in the affordable TV space, where it currently competes through its own Onn brand. However, Vizio is a much bigger player than Onn, which may be proven by the fact that you read that sentence and think, “What the hell is Onn?”
This isn’t just about TVs, though. It’s about advertising. Vizio’s 2021 financial results revealed that the company made twice as much money from ads, subscriptions and data than from actual TV sales. And that’s exactly what Walmart is really interested in.
Walmart keeps an eye on the spectators
Walmart tracks what you watch on your Vizio TV. According to FlatpanelsHDWalmart will collect viewing data through a system called ACR, short for Automated Content Recognition. That scans the content you view so you can target ads more effectively.
That means the prize here isn’t so much the TV business as it is the SmartCast operating system: as Walmart says, the acquisition “will also bring to market new and differentiated ways for advertisers to meaningfully connect with customers at scale and drive product discovery, helping brands achieve greater impact from their advertising investments with Walmart Connect.” And if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that we want our TVs to help brands achieve greater impact with their advertising investments.
As we reported a few weeks ago, many TV companies are embracing advertising as a way to subsidize the price of their TVs – and that’s both good and bad news for buyers. Good news, because it obviously keeps prices low. But as we’ve seen before, the more ad-dependent an industry becomes, the more ads you’ll see – often to the point where the service you’re trying to use becomes very unpleasant unless you’re willing to accept an ad. buy. free experience. Even the more expensive options of the best TVs aren’t free from this intrusion – and the cheaper TVs are largely designed around it. It’s one reason why the rumored return of Apple’s plans to make its own TV set could work out, given the company’s privacy focus.