David Tennant - Throwing his Head Back with Laughter - Part Six

Fox's $22 billion acquisition of Roku will come with a trove of data about what you're watching.

Fox is about to take over the TVs in more than 100 million homes worldwide. On Monday, Fox announced that it's acquiring Roku, the streaming middleman that serves as a portal for viewers to hop into services like Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and more. The $22 billion deal may not change Roku's familiar purple interface, but it could put Fox in control of your data behind the screen.

During a call with investors, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the plan is to keep the two companies separate. Fox aims to grow its business by adding Fox Sports, news content, and local stations to Roku -- one of the most popular streaming device and smart TV platforms....

Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood, who will have a role at the combined company after the deal closes in 2027, echoed this idea, saying that the streaming platform would feature Fox content on its homescreen, which currently shows a large marquee ad, along with a carousel filled with suggested shows and movies....

The multibillion-dollar deal may not result in an obvious branding change for Roku, but it may raise alarm bells for the people paying attention to the recent wave of media acquisitions that have put the Trump-friendly Ellison family in charge of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, CBS News, and, to an extent, TikTok. Lachlan Murdoch, who took the reins of Fox and its Trump-aligned news network last year, also owns The Wall Street Journal parent company News Corp.

except the article tutorial mentions "now your TV can't track what you watch!" and i say What? and i click through to the second article, which says "Modern smart TVs use a technique called "automatic content recognition," or ACR. When you watch something on any device plugged into the TV---yes, even if you have a device plugged in via HDMI---the TV captures some pixels from whatever you're watching and uploads them to the TV manufacturer's servers. The servers can match that to a movie or TV show. The TV manufacturer now knows what you're watching, and it can sell that data to marketers and advertisers." and "Manufacturers get enough money up front to cover the cost of the TV, but they aren't making much profit from selling that hardware. They make money from tracking your TV viewing habits, selling advertisements, and earning a commission off digital media purchases and rentals you make on the TV." source

and the whole time im reading about that my TV is trying to update itself post-reboot, except it can't because there's no wifi, and it says "either check the wifi connection or reboot or factory reset." i reboot. same thing. it will not proceed without wifi. i had to factory reset and then the first thing it asked for again was Set Up Wifi and there was ye olde Do it Later button instead of NO! NO! NO!!! but check this out!