I assume the logic is that you can now sell the TV for less than competitors, which would surely bring customers. Seems pretty straightforward and inline with how the whole TV broadcast industry has subsidized content with ads for decades.

Not just TV's. Xiaomi subsidizes it's mobile phones by having ads in it's file manager and other default basic apps. Just as an example.

Customers don't matter. Revenues do.

TVs are now a commodity that competes almost solely on price. You can walk into most big box stores in North America and buy a TV that will display at a higher resolution than your eyes are physically capable of processing at the distance of the average living room, have a screen bigger than the average person's wingspan, and it'll cost well under $500. If you don't keep the price low you're going to lose sales. Since you're not making cash on the front-end, you make it by selling the ad space.

Everyone who could want a TV more-or-less has one. You either cut quality so they have to buy 'em more often, or you monetize what's already there. They're probably doing both, but this is an example of the latter.

The thought process goes like this:

They're a customer already if they're opening the home screen and they probably already mounted it on their wall so fuck them. Show them ads. Also turn on the microphone in the background (what my Hisense tv does).

I have an older Opera based Hisense TV. The platform was renamed to Vewd. (rhythms with 'lewd')

I presume the same mind thought this up.

"This will surely raise revenues and get me a promotion before I make a lateral move to a new company!"

If you can sell the ads as a subscription with a yearly contract you can get a 10x multiple on it in your valuation.