This is a really facile comment; markets are not an infinite continuous smooth differentiable array of feature/price points, they're a mess of bundles with obfuscatory pricing an some negative added value features that have been stuck on there because the OEM was paid to do so.

What does an economist's perspective have to do with real life markets? :)

When many smart tv's display adverts and commercial apps, you could argue that the smart feature is subsidising the TV.

Good point.

The point I was trying to make was that from a market efficiency perspective, this kind of thing should not be a problem.

So it might be more expensive to remove the feature altogether, including the advertising revenue it would generate. Such is the cost of privacy, apparently.

So TV's nagging to have a connection setup is something we can look forward to then?

Only if the economist was no good at economics.