How to Block Ads on Your Smart TV (Samsung, LG, Sony, or Roku)

LG's CX OLED screen family provides the best image quality I've seen on any display or monitor, OLED or LCD. After 15 years of wanting one, I finally bought one last year as part of covering the Xbox Series X and because OLED screens were now affordable enough for me to justify the purchase.

It is possible that the problem began last summer. LG Smart TVs with ads more generally have been the subject of reports since late 2019. Corporate monetization that is so greedy and grasping reveals a corporate attitude that will stop at nothing to carpet-bomb consumers with ads, even if it degrades the customer experience. Fortunately, it's not your problem. You can stop it in two ways.

Method 1: Do not use smart TV features

From the perspective of your TV manufacturer, its primary purpose is to collect as much information about your viewing habits as possible and relay it back to them. Keeping your TV from connecting to the internet except when absolutely necessary is one way to prevent this. In the five months since I bought my 55-inch LG CX TV, it has been online only once. An OS update was necessary to achieve full compatibility with the Xbox Series X and to enable 120fps and FreeSync. I then turned off the Wi-Fi and deleted the network password from the TV.

As a result, what do I no longer have access to? Not a thing. Within seconds of booting the TV and Xbox (or TV and PC), I can be watching content on my chosen service. My TV is connected to my PC if I want to stream services from it. When I want to game, I game. I have no reason to believe the TV wouldn't work just as seamlessly with a PS4 or PS5, since it handles PC and Xbox gaming and streaming beautifully. It gives me full access to all of its internal features related to color and picture quality, and I won't be forced to watch advertising as I change the settings.

My own preferred solution to this problem is method #1, but I have no use for "smart" TVs in the first place. Not everyone feels the same way. People want to use the features they paid for without being forced to watch advertisements. If you fall into this category, you have the following options:

Method 2: Ads can be blocked at the router

LG CX owners who think their relationship with LG ends when they pay LG money and receive a TV can block this type of spam. Reddit thread explaining how to block adware on Samsung and LG TVs. In addition, Roku and Amazon Fire Stick users can block ads. Sony and Android TV users are also covered.

The manufacturer of your television should not have the right to display advertisements at a time, place, or manner of their choosing. As you may recall, televised ads were once shown in very specific places called "commercial breaks" during which you were able to use the restroom, get a drink, make popcorn, or do anything else that didn't require you to pay attention to what someone wanted to sell you. The companies today pretend buying a $5 widget means you've agreed to be advertised to and tracked across multiple devices forever. It's not true. Don't accept it.

LG device owners should block the following addresses at their router:

ngfts.lge.com

us.ad.lgsmartad.com

lgad.cjpowercast.com

edgesuite.net

us.info.lgsmartad.com

You can also use an ad-blocking piece of software like Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi or other low-power device if you cannot block addresses at the router (most can, but not all).

Purchasing a product from a company does not automatically imply interest or desire to hear from that company again. An exchange of friendly greetings with a stranger does not invite them into a relationship in which one party is free to bombard the other with advertisements. However, I recommend the LG CX only if you intend to use it as a dumb display or otherwise block its advertising. An LG CX at $1,500 is not a good deal if it only comes in "Mandatory LG Advertising" flavor, and it would need at least a $750 price cut before I'd recommend it.