Always said this was where smart TVs were going
But no, idiots think they're great, since you could browse the web or watch Netflix directly on your TV. When you can watch Netflix on your computer, your phone/tablet, your cable/satellite box, your Blu Ray player, your game console and your Apple TV or Roku set top, what exactly is the need for a "smart" TV? TVs don't really even need tuners any more in most cases, if I could save the $20 the ATSC licensing fees cost by buying a 65" plasma monitor instead of a TV, I would (US law requires including a QAM and ATSC tuner in anything marketed as a television) It just needs a few HDMI inputs and I'm good.
I don't want a Shazam app inside listening to what I'm watching so it could report back to headquarters what I watch, when I watch, how long I watch and even what I FF through (ads notable by their absence) - even Blu Ray discs or Netflix content no matter how it arrives on my TV could be accounted for this way. I'm sure to be 'helpful' they'll include the eye tracking stuff like on Samsung phones so you they can tell when you are actually watching TV and when you are just listening to it while messing with your phone, or simply using it as background noise. Then it could "helpfully" turn up the volume on the ads since the only time they play on my TV is when I'm not sitting in front of it.
The problem for TV manufacturers (in their eyes) has always been that they don't make any money off the TV after they've sold it to you. They dream of being like Apple or Google in the smartphone/tablet world and making further revenue after the sale. This type of technology allows them to fix that "problem". If you buy a TV with network capability, don't plug in a cable or tell it your wireless SSID/password. There's no good reason to connect a TV to the Internet.