海角大神

Samsung is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. As if the Orwellian (and since 鈥�clarified鈥�) language in Samsung鈥檚 SmartTV privacy policy was not enough to leave a bad taste in the mouths of customers, it is now being reported that Samsung smart televisions 鈥� in what looks like a technical glitch 鈥� are placing Pepsi ads in the middle of videos for no clear reason.

On Monday, a took to the forum after a year-old Samsung TV began 鈥渟topping half way through a show or a movie鈥� and playing a muted Pepsi ad. None of the person's other devices, such as smart phones or tablets, exhibited the same issue with personal content.

, a streaming service, also felt some when one user upgraded their Media Server and began seeing the same Pepsi ad 鈥渆very 10-15 minutes,鈥� which subsequently caused their TV to restart when attempting to exit the commercial. Subscribers use Plex鈥檚 app to stream video to various devices on the same network.

But the Pepsi ad did not stop there.

Soon, Australians reported experiencing the same Pepsi problem and took to on , the nation鈥檚 largest pay-TV provider, to find the source of the annoyance. The advertisement was displayed while using Foxtel鈥檚 streaming app, which is built into Samsung鈥檚 SmartHub interface.

Foxtel was , with one employee saying, 鈥渢his absolutely should not be happening and has been escalated immediately.鈥�

quoted a Foxtel spokesperson as saying "this was an unintentional action by Samsung that we're working closely with them to resolve ASAP."

Not willing to take the blame either, Samsung Electronics Australia released the following statement to CNET:

鈥淭his was a result of an error that occurred as part of a recent software update that was not intended for the Australian market. We can confirm that the issue has now been rectified and that there are currently no plans to introduce this type of advertising in Australia in the near future. Samsung Electronics Australia would like to apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused to our customers.鈥�

Plex also pointed to Samsung as the perpetrator of the ad. As the company responded to the confusion on its forum, , 鈥淚 am trying to figure out what is happening, but I suspect it is Samsung that has turned on some feature. Forcing ads on everyone.鈥�

This technical confusion raises the question: Is this an upcoming feature that sneaked out before it was ready or simply a bug? Samsung obviously has the power to turn on this technology at its discretion. Could this be the future of advertising in television?

This was not the first time the Samsung smart TV has received negative press over unwanted advertising, either. After two months with his smart TV in 2014, tech blogger the painstaking steps he went through to disable the pop-up ads he was experiencing with the TV. In a , Samsung clarified that it had been in a partnership with Yahoo since 2011 鈥渢o explore and develop more interactive smart TV features that will allow consumers the choice to experience a new generation of home entertainment.鈥�

As The Verge put it, maybe its time to .