Samsung and LG don’t only sell TVs: they also sell advertising space on them. Samsung’s 2020 European FAQ about its ad business lists where those ads appear (the navigation menu, the app store, the Universal Guide and Samsung TV Plus) and answers the question “Can consumers opt-out of ads?” with a plain “No”. LG’s manual, on the other hand, documents a switch for the ads on its home screen. So the first step differs by brand, and it’s free.
A word on menu names: they change from one model year to the next, and we haven’t checked them on every TV. The paths below come from Samsung’s and LG’s own pages and manuals, linked each time. If yours differ a little, look for the same words nearby.
Step 1: the TV’s own settings
Samsung (Tizen)
- Personalised ads. Settings, All Settings, General & Privacy, Terms & Privacy, then untick “I consent to Interest-Based Advertising”, as described in Samsung Ads’ privacy notice. On 2025 models, Consumer Reports finds the same choices under a Privacy Choices entry, just below Settings. Samsung is clear about the limit: “This will not reduce or prevent the delivery of generic or non-personalised ads.” You see as many ads, only less targeted.
- Content recognition. In the same menu, untick “Viewing Information Services”, the feature that recognises what’s on screen. Consumer Reports explains how to turn it off on each brand.
- The home screen at switch-on. Settings, All Settings, Advanced Features, Start Screen Options, then turn off “Start with Smart Hub Home” (2022 models and later, according to Samsung). The TV then starts on the last source you used, and you land on the home screen less often.
What you can’t do on a Samsung is switch the home-screen ads off: Samsung’s FAQ, quoted above, says so.
LG (webOS)
From LG’s webOS 24 manual:
- Home-screen ads. General, System, Additional Settings, Home Settings: turn off “Home Promotion”, which the manual describes in one line: “You can turn on or off the advertisements on the Home screen”. Turn off “Content Recommendation” too. Under “Power On Screen”, choose “Recent Input” so the TV starts on your last source.
- Live Plus. In Additional Settings, set “Live Promotion” to Off: according to the manual, it removes the advertisements from Live Plus.
- Tracking and the ad ID. Support, Privacy & Terms: in “User Agreements”, refuse the optional agreements, such as viewing information and personalised ads. Under “Advertisement”, turn on “Limit AD Tracking” and use “Reset AD ID”.
Older webOS versions keep the same switches in similar places; the manual for your model will have them.
Step 2: a DNS filter
The settings above remove the targeting and, on LG, the home-screen promotions. What’s left comes over the network, and part of it can be cut by DNS: point the TV at a DNS filter that answers “nowhere” for ad and tracking domains (how that works, and why it doesn’t need a Raspberry Pi). The filter can be Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or AdHole running on a computer at home.
Samsung: Settings, All Settings, Connection, Network, Network Status, then IP Settings (2022 models and later, according to Samsung; on 2021 and older models: Settings, General, Network, Network Status). Set the DNS to manual and enter the filter’s address.
LG (webOS 6.0 and later): All Settings, General, Network, then your wired or Wi-Fi connection, and Edit (or Advanced Wi-Fi Settings) to change the DNS server. LG’s help page also gives the paths for older webOS versions.
Three conditions make it hold:
- The filter’s address must not change. Reserve it in your router.
- IPv6 must not go around it. If your network uses IPv6, the TV may keep asking the router over IPv6 and skip your filter. What happens, and what to do.
- The filter must be on whenever the TV is. With AdHole on a PC, the TV loses internet access when the PC is off or asleep, and on Windows the PC’s network must be set to Private. The address to enter is in AdHole’s dashboard, under “this computer’s address”.
What disappears, and what stays
We can’t give you a list per model: it depends on the TV, its apps and the filter lists. The general picture:
| TV settings | DNS filter | |
|---|---|---|
| Personalised (targeted) ads | Off, on both brands | Not its job |
| Home-screen ad tiles | LG: can be switched off. Samsung: no | In part |
| Ads in third-party apps | No | Those served from ad domains |
| Viewing data (content recognition) | Off, on both brands | Some tracking domains |
| Ads on Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels | No | Not reliably |
| Ads in the YouTube app | No | No |
Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels are free channels funded by advertising: Samsung calls TV Plus its “free, ad-supported streaming service”. Their ads come with the deal. More generally, AdGuard, which sells DNS filtering, writes that some TV ads are built into the TV’s software, and that DNS filtering “cannot block ads delivered through the same domains as legitimate TV services or apps”.
Filtering can also break something: a store, a channel app, a sign-in. If a feature stops working after the change, allow the domain it needs. In AdHole, that’s one line in the dashboard’s custom rules.
YouTube in the TV app
No network filter removes these ads. They come from the same servers as the videos, so blocking them means blocking YouTube (the full explanation). The only workarounds replace the app itself: TizenTube on Samsung (Tizen 3 or later, in developer mode) and youtube-webos on LG (through the Homebrew Channel or LG’s Developer Mode). Both install outside the official stores, and neither is supported by YouTube. The other way is to watch YouTube on a computer, where the browser can be cleaned.
How to undo it
- Settings. Every switch above can be turned back on from the same menu.
- DNS. Go back to the TV’s IP settings and set the DNS to automatic. Do it before you switch off for good the computer or the Pi the TV relies on, or the TV will lose internet access.
Sources checked on 5 October 2026 and linked in the text.