How’s this for a nightmare:

You’re having trouble sleeping, it’s 2 am, and you shuffle into the kitchen to grab a little something to eat. And as you walk up to your techie fridge with the big screen, a “Kars4Kids” commercial plays. And you can’t stop it.

I can’t speak for you, but for me, that would take a bad night and make it worse.

And it could be seriously coming to a refrigerator very near you if Samsung has its way, according to a new story in The Verge by Thomas Ricker.

For now, this insidious ploy to serve us ads wherever there’s a screen is just another tentacle in Samsung’s “screens everywhere” initiative. Ricker tells us this test is being served up in a software update affecting U.S. Family Hub branded refrigerators. (I “doctored” the image at the top of this post to include a Kars4Kids ad.)

A statement from the company attempts to rationalize this pilot program as a value added campaign for these appliances:

“Samsung is committed to innovation and enhancing every day value for our home appliance customers. As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen that value, we are conducting a pilot program to offer promotions and curated advertisements on certain Samsung Family Hub refrigerator models in the U.S. market.”

Customer reaction has apparently been swift—and overwhelmingly negative. But that may not stop the company from continuing its march toward making ads on refrigerators as common as billboards dotting our streets and highways.

And there’s plenty of competition in this burgeoning space. Samsung’s key competitor is LG. And at CES 2025, we spent time in their vast exhibit familiarizing ourselves with their OOH (Out Of Home) platform, a way to target consumers in less crowded places (pictured).

It’s all part of the OTT—Over The Top—advertising movement. If you’ve somehow avoided it, OTT is defined as video ads delivered via internet streaming on any connected device. Major distribution points include smart TVs and smartphones, tablets, and computers. But the OTT world has gotten creative as evidenced by Samsung’s foray into ads on household appliances.

Like the backseat of New York City taxis where a screen blares streaming content, along with ads. Or GSTV—short for Gas Station TV, now activated on gas pumps all over the U.S. GSTV claims “2 billion moments of attention and action” on their OTT network.

The key to OTT is that it bypasses traditional advertising—like broadcast and cable—to deliver ads in a highly targeted, geo-zoning fashion. And the market is growing.

We’ve watched this trend solidify at CES over the past several years. The Samsung and LG exhibits are among the largest at the show, and we always try to build a tour stop at one of these incredible displays. We’ve watched kitchens become more connected and sources of media content, and it hasn’t been the least bit difficult imaging refrigerators becoming ad delivery appliances.

How big a market is OTT? The projections is for it to come very close to the $4 billion mark this year. And growth is expected to kick in quickly as advertisers and marketers learn the potential and results of OTT messaging.

That’s why more and more big names are lining up to build their OTT networks—quickly.

I’ve blogged about streaming video platforms building their Over-The-Top ad programs, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Apple TV+, and of course, Netflix.

And then there are brands like Tubi and Pluto TV, along with YouTube TV. And not surprisingly, Samsung, LG, Walmart, and others are getting into the OTT game, guaranteeing our over commercialized lives are only going to become even more riddled with ads designed to serve as heat-seeking missiles trying to reach us wherever our location.

What does all this OTT advertising say about the customer experience—or CX? As we know in radio, it’s not good. As smart and innovative as radio programmers may be, the fact is the experience of enjoying commercial radio has been tarnished as a result of programmers jamming a full hour’s commercial content into two stopset slots, creating a listening environment that is clearly suboptimal. And let’s not forget the majority of these stations air their spot inventories at the same time in the hour, creating yet another barrier to satisfying the audience.

And we’re already seeing signs OTT platforms are making their own messes with ads as they cram and jam commercials into slots that may be too big/too small given the available ads. Too often, advertising on video streaming channels just appears in the middle of content and scenes not designed to be interrupted by ads for Ozempic and Geico.

Listening to podcasts can exhibit some of these same tendencies. Ads just appear unnaturally, interrupting the content, and in the process, making it insane to not skip through them out of force of habit. These are growing pains, typical for new advertising platforms. But as we’ve learned from the radio business during the past couple decades, negative perceptions don’t take long to form, but they can be difficult to shake, even if consumers enjoy y0ur content.

Where are we headed?

If there’s a screen, it seems like a foregone conclusion it will eventually carry ads. For radio brands, OTT may turn out to be an efficient way to reach new listeners. But it also represents a competitive challenge as many of these platforms are well-located at the point of purchase. While radio has had an advantage marketing for “windshield businesses,” OTT may actually get customers even closer to products and services.

Whether it’s the screens in our cars or ones that make their way onto appliances not readily associated with content—like refrigerators—everyone’s trying to monetize their consumers.

And given that more than four in ten U.S. consumers says they’re “always on” when it comes to their Internet usage, this is a growing segment that radio will once again attempt to play catch-up.

Note how the age progression runs counter to what we see in radio, where usage increases with age, rather than the diverse.

To stay competitive, radio’s digital offerings will have to evolve.

Imagine those live reads at the gas station, cars, and household appliances.

Coming soon to a screen near you.

A postscript: Back in 2019, we ran across the refrigerator y0u see pictured below. While its “killer app” did not revolve around running ads as part of an OTT network, a feature that jumped out at us was the ability to turn you refrigerator into a radio like the one you see picture below. We got excited when we first saw it, as we reasoned it would be perfect to have The Bert Show (or your favorite morning team) blaring from your refrigerator while you scarfed down your Cheerios. Alas, the Chinese company that manufactured this concept, Haier, didn’t seem to continue with the concept.

And ICYMI, Bert Weiss announced he is walking away from his very successful syndicated morning program, The Bert Show. We wish him the best.

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Fred Jacobs

President & Founder at Jacobs Media

Fred Jacobs founded Jacobs Media in 1983, and quickly became known for the creation of the Classic Rock radio format.

Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.

In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.

Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.

Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.

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