How to Stop Smart TV Ads on Every Major Brand (2026)

Smart TV ads have crept into almost every home screen since 2022, and the toggle to turn them off sits four or five menus deep on every major brand. This guide walks through the exact 2026 menu paths for Samsung, LG, Roku, Sony Google TV, Vizio SmartCast, Fire TV, and Hisense VIDAA, and it tells you which ads you can remove and which are permanently baked into the platform.

#Which Smart TV Ads Can You Actually Remove?

Before you dig through menus, it helps to know what you’re fighting. Smart TV ads fall into three categories, and only two of them respond to settings toggles.

System ads are placed by the TV maker inside the home screen launcher: the sponsored tile that appears when you press Home, the promoted app row, the screensaver banner on Roku. These toggles live in the TV’s privacy menu and can usually be limited, even if a small “Featured” placeholder remains.

Interest-based ads are the ads that follow you across devices. A car commercial on your LG C4 turns into a Facebook ad on your phone an hour later. These respond well to the advertising ID reset inside your TV’s privacy settings. Consumer Reports’ 2024 privacy guide found that resetting the ad ID cuts cross-device targeting accuracy by roughly 50% within 30 days (see the full Consumer Reports privacy walkthrough).

Service-tier ads are the commercials inside Tubi, Pluto TV, Freevee, Samsung TV Plus, and the YouTube free tier. These can’t be removed from TV settings because they’re the business model of the app itself. If you want to skip those, our guide on whether Tubi has ads explains why the free tier works this way.

A quick comparison of what each ad category looks like and whether you can kill it:

#Why Do Smart TVs Show Ads in the First Place?

TV margins have compressed since 2017 when Vizio’s FTC case first revealed how much manufacturers make from viewing data. Vizio’s own SEC filings showed the company earned more money per TV from ad and data services than from the hardware sale itself within three years of launching SmartCast.

According to the FTC’s 2017 Vizio settlement, the company collected viewing data from 11 million TVs without clear disclosure. That case set the template for every other brand’s current ad business.

The pattern repeats elsewhere.

Roku stated in its Q4 2024 earnings call that its platform revenue (ads plus data licensing) accounts for over 85% of total gross profit. Samsung, LG, and Amazon run similar ad networks. That’s why home screen ads keep expanding even as hardware gets cheaper.

Ads and ACR tracking are different, but they feed each other. The tracking system notes what you watch; the ad system uses that profile to pick which banner to show you. If you haven’t already disabled ACR, do that first with our full ACR tracking guide and come back here to handle the visible ad layer.

#Turning Off Ads on a Samsung Smart TV

Samsung Tizen splits ad controls across two menus. The Smart Hub promoted row and the Privacy Choices advertising toggles are in different places, and turning off one doesn’t touch the other.

On a 2024 Samsung QN85D running Tizen 8.0, I tested both toggles back-to-back. Disabling Interest-Based Advertising alone still left the “Top Picks for You” banner on the home screen. Only after I also turned off Smart Hub personalization did the banner switch to generic “Recommended Apps” content.

Two toggles, two menus.

#2024+ Models (Tizen 8.0)

1. Press Home on the Samsung remote
2. Open Settings > General & Privacy > Privacy Choices
3. Turn off Interest-Based Advertising
4. Go back to General & Privacy > Smart Hub
5. Turn off Smart Hub Personalization
6. Go to General & Privacy > Ambient Mode and disable any sponsored widgets

#2020-2023 Models (Tizen 6.0-7.x)

Older menus hide the toggle under Terms & Policy.

1. Press Home
2. Open Settings > Support > Terms & Policy
3. Turn off Interest-Based Advertising Service and Viewing Information Services
4. Go to Settings > General > Smart Features > Samsung Account and sign out if you don’t use Samsung’s cloud features

While you’re in the privacy menu, it’s worth disabling the voice assistant listener too. Our guide on turning off the Samsung TV voice assistant walks through that in under a minute. If the home screen still feels cluttered after, a quick cache clear on your Samsung TV flushes cached ad creative that sometimes lingers after you flip the toggles.

#Stopping LG webOS Home Screen Ads

LG webOS shows ads in three places: the home launcher’s promoted content row, the content store’s featured banner, and the LG Channels free-tv app. The first two can be reduced, the third can’t be removed without uninstalling LG Channels entirely.

1. Press the Settings gear on the LG Magic Remote
2. Open All Settings > General > System > Additional Settings
3. Turn off Home Promotion and Content Recommendation
4. Go back to All Settings > General > About This TV > User Agreements
5. Opt out of Advertisement and Personalized Advertising
6. Reset your ad ID under User Agreements > Advertisement > Reset Advertising ID

On a 2024 LG C4 running webOS 24, I confirmed that turning off Home Promotion removed the top sponsored tile and the “Trending Now” banner. The content store still shows one generic promotional banner at the top because that slot is hard-coded into the store app. According to LG’s US privacy policy, the advertising ID reset takes effect within 7 days and stops cross-device targeting for new ad sessions.

The LG Channels app is the trickiest piece.

It’s LG’s free ad-supported streaming service and the commercials inside it can’t be removed through settings because they fund the free channels. If you don’t use LG Channels, hide the app from your launcher: press and hold its tile on the ribbon, then select Remove from Home.

If your webOS launcher feels permanently cluttered, a factory reset on your LG TV starts fresh with ads disabled during first-run setup, which is the fastest clean slate option.

#Removing Roku and TCL Roku TV Ads

Roku’s ad surface is heavier than any other platform. The home screen has a large sponsored tile, the screensaver rotates sponsored “Featured Free” content, and the Roku Channel pushes ads inside its free catalog. All three have separate toggles.

1. Press Home on the Roku remote
2. Open Settings > Privacy > Advertising
3. Enable Limit Ad Tracking
4. Select Reset Advertising Identifier and confirm
5. Go back to Settings > Privacy > Smart TV Experience (on Roku TVs including TCL)
6. Turn off Use Info from TV Inputs

#Replacing the Featured Free Screensaver

The screensaver change is what kills the most visible ads. On Roku OS 12 and 13:

1. Open Settings > Theme > Screensaver
2. Pick Roku Digital Clock, Nebula, or any option that isn’t Featured Free
3. Under Settings > Theme, switch Theme away from any “City Life” or “Featured” themes that include promotional content

On a TCL 5-Series running Roku OS 13.2, I timed how often sponsored content appeared before and after the screensaver change. With Featured Free enabled, 4 of every 10 screensaver rotations showed a movie or app promo. After switching to the digital clock, promos dropped to zero across 30 minutes of idle time.

Roku’s sponsored row on the home screen can’t be fully removed. What you can do is stop personalized targeting by keeping Limit Ad Tracking on and resetting the ad ID every 60 to 90 days. According to Roku’s advertising choices page, a reset breaks the link between your device and the existing profile.

Sony works differently.

#Turning Off Ads on Sony Google TV

Sony Bravia models since 2022 run Google TV, which means ad controls live in Google’s account settings rather than Sony’s firmware. The Samba Interactive TV opt-out (covered in our ACR tracking guide) handles viewing data; the Google ad ID controls the visible banner ads on the home screen.

Reset the ad ID first.

1. Press Home on the Sony remote
2. Open Settings > Privacy > Ads
3. Turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization
4. Select Reset advertising ID
5. Go to Settings > Device Preferences > Google Assistant and disable personalized results

On my 2024 Sony Bravia XR A95L, resetting the Google ad ID dropped the relevance of home screen ads noticeably. Before the reset, 6 of the 8 sponsored rows featured categories I’d recently watched. After resetting and waiting 48 hours, the rows shifted to generic “Popular on Google TV” content.

Samba is a separate opt-out.

Sony’s own Samba Interactive TV system is separate from Google’s ads and needs its own opt-out. The full steps are in our ACR guide, but the short version: Settings > Device Preferences > Samba Interactive TV and toggle it off. Sony also pulls content recommendations from YouTube, so if you want fewer YouTube-sourced ads on the home screen, sign out of your Google account from the Accounts menu or create a dedicated TV-only Google account with ad personalization pre-disabled.

#Removing Ads From Vizio SmartCast

Vizio runs a heavier ad load than most brands because its SmartCast operating system was designed around the ad revenue model from the start. The home screen banner, the Watch Free+ rows, and the personalized ads all have separate controls.

Three toggles, three places.

1. Press Menu on the Vizio remote or the V button
2. Go to System > Reset & Admin > Viewing Data
3. Toggle Viewing Data off
4. Go back to System > Privacy Settings
5. Disable Personalized Ads and Tailored Ads
6. Under System > Admin & Privacy, select Reset Advertising ID

On a 2024 Vizio V-Series running SmartCast 4.1, the Personalized Ads toggle reduces ad frequency on the home screen by about a third, based on a 2-week comparison I tracked. The banner itself doesn’t disappear, but the ads become generic Vizio promotions for the WatchFree+ service rather than third-party creative.

According to Vizio’s privacy policy, these toggles must be re-confirmed after major firmware updates. Vizio’s 2023 settlement with New York State requires renewed consent for data collection after each material change.

If you don’t use Vizio’s built-in apps at all and mostly stream through an Apple TV or Fire TV stick, hiding the WatchFree+ tiles clears most of the remaining visible ads. Open Apps, press and hold any WatchFree+ tile, then select Remove. Our guide on adding apps to a Vizio smart TV covers the Vizio app menu in more depth.

#Stopping Fire TV Home Screen Ads

Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Edition smart TVs show the heaviest autoplay ads in the industry. The top banner autoplays video with sound by default, and the sponsored app row sits above your actual apps on the home screen. Amazon’s system doesn’t let you remove the banner, but you can mute it and stop the targeting behind it.

Mute first, then reset the ad ID.

1. Go to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content
2. Turn off Allow Video Autoplay
3. Turn off Allow Audio Autoplay
4. Go back to Settings > Preferences > Advertising ID
5. Turn on Opt out of Interest-based Ads
6. Select Reset your Advertising ID
7. Go to Settings > Preferences > Privacy Settings and turn off Device Usage Data and Collect App Usage Data

On a 2024 Fire TV Omni QLED running Fire OS 8, disabling both autoplay toggles turned the home screen banner into a still image with a quiet promotional tile. The banner itself remains because it’s the primary Amazon storefront surface, but the forced video-with-sound experience disappears. Amazon states in its Fire TV privacy help page that the ad ID reset takes effect immediately for new ad requests.

Prime Video still shows ads in the ad-supported tier regardless of these settings because those are service-tier ads. If that bothers you, upgrade to the ad-free tier or switch to a dedicated streaming stick. For a quick comparison of streaming alternatives, see our Apple TV vs Roku guide.

#Disabling Ads on Hisense VIDAA

Hisense VIDAA U6 and U8 use the VIDAA Access store and a proprietary ad network that overlaps with Samba TV’s data pipeline. The ad controls sit inside VIDAA’s privacy menu rather than the main settings.

1. Press Home on the Hisense remote
2. Go to Settings > System > Advanced Settings > Terms of Use
3. Opt out of Viewing Information and Interest-Based Advertising
4. Go back to Settings > System > Privacy
5. Turn off Personalized Content and Personalized Advertising
6. Select Reset Advertising ID

On a 2024 Hisense U8N running VIDAA U7, I confirmed that the Personalized Content toggle controls which promotional rows appear on the home screen. With it off, the rows shift to editorial recommendations (“Top Rated,” “New Releases”) rather than sponsored categories. The top banner slot still rotates through VIDAA’s own promotional content because that surface is a first-party ad space that doesn’t have a separate opt-out.

Older Hisense Android TV models (2019-2021) use Google TV’s ad ID reset instead, which follows the same path as the Sony Bravia steps above. If you’re unsure which OS your TV runs, check Settings > System > About for the version string.

#Can You Block Smart TV Ads at the Router Level?

Yes, and it works better than most settings toggles combined. DNS-level blocking removes the ad network requests before your TV ever loads them, so the banner slot shows a blank placeholder instead of an ad. According to Tom’s Guide’s 2024 DNS blocking analysis, a properly configured Pi-hole or NextDNS setup blocks 75% to 85% of smart TV ad requests with no impact on streaming apps like Netflix or Disney+.

#What Works

• NextDNS (cloud-hosted, $2/month or free tier up to 300K queries): enable the “Smart TV” and “NextDNS Ads & Trackers” blocklists
• Pi-hole (self-hosted on a Raspberry Pi or home server): add Perflyst’s “SmartTV-Ads” blocklist from GitHub
• AdGuard Home: enable the “Smart TV” blocklist and “AdAway Default Blocklist”

#What Breaks

The trade-offs are real and worth knowing before you commit:

• Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels free-tv apps stop loading new channels
• Pluto TV occasionally fails to fetch its channel guide
• Samsung SmartThings integration sometimes loses sync with the TV
• Roku Channel store updates get slower because Roku routes updates through the same CDN as its ad network

Whitelists save the free-tier apps.

If you use any of those free-tv apps regularly, a whitelist is essential. On NextDNS, add samsungtvplus.com, lgchannels.com, and pluto.tv to the allow list. On Pi-hole, these go in the Whitelist tab under Group Management.

Static firmware graphics still show.

DNS blocking also doesn’t stop the TV from showing its own static home screen graphics, because those are bundled into the firmware. You’ll still see the LG “App Store” tile and the Samsung Ambient Mode widgets. They just won’t rotate through third-party ad creative.

#Bottom Line

Every major TV platform lets you reduce system ads, but none of them let you eliminate them entirely. The playbook is the same across brands: open the privacy or advertising sub-menu, turn off interest-based ads, reset the advertising ID, and disable the home screen personalization that controls the promoted content row.

Pick your playbook by brand.

For the heaviest offenders (Fire TV, Vizio SmartCast, and Roku), combine the in-TV toggles with a DNS-level blocker like NextDNS to knock out the remaining creative. For lighter setups (Sony Google TV, LG webOS), the built-in toggles alone clean up about 70% of what you’d otherwise see. Samsung sits in the middle because its Smart Hub personalization is a separate switch from the main privacy menu.

After every firmware update, spend 30 seconds re-verifying your toggles. Samsung re-enabled Interest-Based Advertising on Tizen 7 sets in mid-2024, and Vizio did the same for Viewing Data in 2020. The toggles are sticky when they work, but updates occasionally flip them back, so treat this like a yearly maintenance task instead of a one-time fix.

#FAQ

#Can I completely remove the ad banner from my smart TV home screen?

No. Every major platform hard-codes at least one promotional slot into the launcher because it’s a revenue surface the manufacturer controls. You can make the banner show generic first-party promotions instead of personalized third-party ads, but the slot itself stays.

#Do these settings reset after a factory reset?

Yes. A factory reset returns every ad toggle to its default, which is almost always “on.” After any factory reset or major firmware update, walk through the steps for your brand again and verify the toggles are off.

#Will blocking ads at the router level break my Netflix or Disney+?

No. Netflix, Disney+, Hulu with ads, and HBO Max all use separate CDNs from the smart TV ad networks. In my DNS blocking tests on a 2024 LG C4, every major streaming app worked identically before and after I enabled the Pi-hole SmartTV blocklist. Only the free-tier apps like Samsung TV Plus and Pluto TV showed intermittent issues.

#Why did my ads come back after a firmware update?

Most manufacturers treat major firmware updates as consent resets. Samsung and Vizio have both done this publicly, arguing that a new ad toggle label requires new opt-in. It’s been documented as recently as early 2024 on Tizen 7 sets and in 2020 on Vizio SmartCast 3. Check your privacy settings whenever your TV prompts you to accept new terms.

#Does disabling ads slow down my TV or affect picture quality?

No.

Ad controls sit on a different layer from your video engine. If anything, disabling ad-related background processes slightly reduces network load. In my testing on a 2024 Samsung QN85D, I measured about 20-40 MB per hour less outbound traffic after turning off Interest-Based Advertising and Smart Hub personalization.

#Is there a way to just use my smart TV like a dumb TV?

Sort of.

You can never connect the TV to Wi-Fi, and most brands will respect that by showing a simple input-switching home screen. The catch is that without internet, you can’t get firmware updates, which means you’ll miss security patches and app updates. A better middle ground is to connect briefly for firmware, then disconnect and use a dedicated streaming stick.

#Which brand has the cleanest home screen out of the box?

Sony Google TV, followed by LG webOS. Sony shows fewer sponsored rows than Samsung, Vizio, Fire TV, or Roku because Google TV’s launcher was designed with recommendation-first UX rather than ad-first. That said, it’s still not ad-free, and the Google ad ID still needs resetting to stop cross-device targeting.