Progress on one-click shutdown of TV startup ads: various manufacturers have made promises

     Nowadays, startup ads have almost become a "standard feature" of Internet TV. However, they were previously widely criticized by users because they could not be skipped or turned off with one click. In the second half of 2019, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee launched a series of special actions against the problem of smart TV startup ads infringing on consumer rights, requiring seven companies, including Skyworth, Haier, Hisense, Sharp, Xiaomi, Changhong, and LeTV, to make rectifications within a limited time.

　　Nowadays, how is the progress of the major TV brands’ improvement measures for “one-click shutdown” of startup ads?

　　According to the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee, on the morning of July 16, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee held a press conference to report the latest rights protection situation. After four rounds of rectification, except for LeTV, the rectification of the six companies has achieved remarkable results.

　　It is reported that all companies have fulfilled their pre-sale notification obligations well, and the prompt pages do not contain words such as "startup ads cannot be changed, deleted, or closed" that clearly deprive consumers of their right to choose.

　　Among them, Skyworth has more than 200 models that can realize one-click turning off of startup ads, and older models have embedded the one-click turning off function through software upgrades.

　　Haier has embedded the "one-click shutdown" function in the newly developed models and put them into production. It has completed the verification of more than 110 models of smart TVs, achieving a pop-up shutdown prompt within 1 second and a shutdown of startup ads within 3 seconds.

　　When Hisense's startup advertisement starts playing, a pop-up window to close the advertisement appears; except for a very small number of old models, other models have basically covered the upgrade strategy.

　　Most of Sharp's models (accounting for about 76.8% of the total) control the pop-up prompt to close the advertisement within 3 to 5 seconds after the advertisement appears. For some models, the prompt will be popped up within 1 second after the advertisement appears. The company strives to achieve this in all models by the end of August.

　　The "Exit Ad" prompt appears within 1 second of Xiaomi TV ads playing. A stable production version that supports "skipping the startup ad within 1 second" is expected to be launched at the end of July.

　　Changhong's startup ads start playing and a pop-up window appears at the same time, covering a total of about 130 models of smart TVs. The ads can be turned off with one click on the current and old models through software upgrades.

　　It is reported that the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee and the China Electronic Commerce Association have jointly drafted the "Technical Specifications for Smart TV Startup Advertisements (Draft for Comments)", which clarifies the duration of startup ads and the "one-click shutdown" function in the form of a group standard. The draft standard for comments was released on March 10 this year, sparking heated public discussion, with high consumer support and praise, and significant positive social effects. At this stage, Haier, Hisense, Skyworth, Changhong, Xiaomi and other companies have joined the standard or have made rectifications in accordance with the requirements of the standard.