Friday, July 14, 2023

LG To Offer Subscriptions For Appliances And Televisions

LG To Offer Subscriptions For Appliances And Televisions (theregister.com)44

LG Electronics is planning to use ads streamed to its televisions and subscriptions services for its appliances to help boost revenue from $51 billion to $78 billion over the next six and a half years. The Register reports:"LG will innovate with a platform-based service business model that continuously generates profits, such as content and services, subscriptions and solutions, to the hardware-oriented businesses, which generate sales and profits at the time of purchase," the company said on Wednesday. LG called this a "customer engagement" centered business model that relies on appliances already present in customers' homes, such as 200-million strong fleet of its smart TVS currently already in use. Those tellies, including the premium end OLED and QNED TVs, will soon have content, services and product ads expanded in an attempt to turn the company into a media and entertainment service provider.

LG has already offered a taste of its intentions: in 2022 it revealed a scheme called "Evolving Appliances For You" that promised software upgrades to home appliances. The company offered the example of a family that moves to a different home, and different climate, and upgrades its clothes drier with routines suited to local conditions. The entrance to subscription media comprises part of what CEO William Cho described on Wednesday as a transformation for LG to a "smart life solutions company," a goal he's hoping to hit by 2030.