Samsung was delighted to announce this morning at CES that they intend to place ads to the home screens of your fancy new Smart TVs. Does this annoy you?

Says Samsung:

“Samsung AdHub envisions creating a win-win situation for both publishers and advertisers with sophisticated targeting solutions. By matching the right ad with the right content, advertisers will be able to reach their marketing goals. This increases advertisers’ willingness to pay a high premium for ads being delivered, which brings a stable revenue stream for publishers. Samsung AdHub, not only strives to satisfy the
needs of advertisers and publishers, but also end-users by providing relevant ads of their interest.”

It doesn’t seem like they intend to stop at the TV, but are building an ad network that aims to provide “a holistic advertising experience,” on your tablets and smart phones as well.

Generally the rationalization behind this sort of super-targeted ad network is that consumers will be happier because they will only see ads that are relevant to them. We’re not sure if this argument holds water, because while the idea of seeing fewer Cialis double-bathtubs is at least appealing in theory, this is still… well, more ads.

Says AdAge:

No one expects these ideas to generate the same amount of ad revenue per execution as an ad on the Super Bowl, “American Idol” or even a documentary on MSNBC on Saturday afternoon. Even so, as TVs adopt characteristics that transform them into something more akin to a laptop or tablet, there will be more room for those who control our viewing “gateway” — the overlays and home screens that get us from powering up our set to a DVR’d episode of “Boardwalk Empire” or a streaming movie off Netflix.

Samsung Ad Hub [Samsung]
Samsung Becomes Latest Smart TV Maker to Target Ads to the Home Screen [AdAge]

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