In March 1973, electronics manufacturer RCA Corporation touted its 맥스카지노�new low-price color TV맥스카지노� in the New York Times. The cost was $379.95 for a 15-inch model ­맥스카지노� the equivalent of a $2,694.32 splurge in current dollars.These days ­맥스카지노� in an era of above-average inflation ­맥스카지노� it can feel like everything from groceries to new cars has gotten more expensive. But one living room staple has managed to defy rising prices and even got less expensive over time: the television. Today, you can snag a 32-inch TV ­맥스카지노� more than double the size of RCA television from 1973 맥스카지노� for under $100.Did television makers lower the prices out of the kindness of their hearts? Hardly.Several factors have contributed to cheaper TVs, some of them manufacturing-related and others more about marketing. There맥스카지노�s increased competition, a more efficient production process, plus the proven drawing power of deals. At brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy and Target, and online retailers like Amazon, some 55-inch TVs are retailing for under $250 맥스카지노� at full price.But perhaps most importantly, there맥스카지노�s a new lucrative revenue stream for TV manufacturers: selling information about you. Today, most TV makers are data brokers, profiting off the information they collect from their internet-connected customers.Faster flat screensThe uses of television sets have changed and so have their appearance. What was for decades once a bulky piece of furniture, sometimes inlaid in carved wood, is now a thin, glossy black panel that can be popped into your shopping cart and hung on your wall. Some current models are even designed to look like a picture frame.As the materials used to build television sets have changed, so too has the manufacturing process. One of the biggest improvements to that process is a scientific development called 맥스카지노�mother glass,맥스카지노� which is what has helped to produce ever-larger TV screens.Over time, TV manufacturers have figured out how to cut costs by punching multiple screens out of one larger sheet of mother glass rather than individually producing each screen, said Paul Gagnon, consumer technology industry advisor at Circana, a market research company.맥스카지노�The easiest way to lower the cost is to make them out of a larger starting piece of glass,맥스카지노� Gagnon said. 맥스카지노�That맥스카지노�s why, as TVs have gotten bigger, the price hasn맥스카지노�t really gone up.맥스카지노�But this design also has a downside: as modern TVs have gotten narrower and lighter, the risk of them toppling over or breaking has increased. The internet is filled with customer reviews lamenting fragile flat-screen TVs.New players enter the marketAnother factor driving prices lower: increased competition.In the last few years, new companies have entered the U.S. market with relatively low-cost offerings, ratcheting up competition for legacy TV makers. Two of the more popular recent additions are Chinese companies 맥스카지노� TCL began selling TVs in the United States in 2014, and Hisense entered the market in 2015. Both are growing market share across the globe.TCL is widely available at big-box stores and is now as ubiquitous as Motorola or RCA was decades ago.맥스카지노�Going back to the olden days of the TV business, about 20 years ago, there were a fewer number of companies selling TVs and they kind of owned their manufacturing technology,맥스카지노� Gagnon said.Advancements made in the manufacturing process have made it easier to compete, driving down prices in the market.맥스카지노�A result of that competition is lower profit margins over time,맥스카지노� Gagnon said.High-end TV featuresNot all TVs are dirt cheap. Pricey add-ons usually not included with discount models are built-in sound bars and audio processing, 4K resolution, 맥스카지노�motion smoothing,맥스카지노� and a wider range of color and brightness levels.Most TVs offer some variation of LED technology, using light-emitting diodes to illuminate your screens. But ones with the highest picture quality, known as OLED TVs, can still retail for thousands of dollars.OLED is short for organic-light-emitting diode. Each pixel provides its own light source in an OLED panel, producing extremely accurate and consistent color. These devices are made by companies like LG and Sony, and they are generally the thinnest and most expensive offerings on the market.Who is watching whom?In the last decade, the television industry has experienced a major shift: a growing number of Americans no longer rely on traditional cable bundles for entertainment. Instead, they get their entertainment from a crowded field of streaming services like Netflix, Max and Disney+.In fact, Americans watched more than 19 million years맥스카지노� worth of streaming content in 2022, according to Nielsen맥스카지노�s annual marketing report. Yes, 19 million years.These days, it맥스카지노�s hard to come by a TV without the ability to access streaming content easily. These modern, internet-connected TVs are called 맥스카지노�smart TVs.맥스카지노�Just as streaming services disrupted the cable business, smart TVs have shifted how television makers do business.맥스카지노�As we watch TV, our TVs watch us,맥스카지노� said Sara Geoghegan, a consumer privacy advocate and legal counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 맥스카지노�Smart TVs collect tons of information.맥스카지노�Geoghegan said the amount of data each TV manufacturer collects can often be opaque, but once a customer sets up their smart TV, viewing habits, location, and potentially more personal data are collected and shared 맥스카지노� unless that customer adjusts the device맥스카지노�s security settings.This new business model changes the calculation for TV manufacturers.맥스카지노�Every TV maker who either sells a TV using their own proprietary Smart TV operating system, or whether they work with a third-party streaming company like a Roku or Amazon Fire TV, it맥스카지노�s important to sell as many units on your platform so you have more eyeballs for things like advertising or more subscription sign up opportunities,맥스카지노� Gagnon said.This push for more data may also incentivize TV producers to lower prices, he added.Not everyone is happy with the idea that the device mounted on your wall can gather intel.Geoghegan argued that many people may be uncomfortable learning that a spying tool was one of the primary reasons their new flatscreen was on sale for $70.맥스카지노�I think when you맥스카지노�re browsing your television, you don맥스카지노�t expect that these kinds of intimate things that are just happening inside your home will be used in this way to profile you and sell you things,맥스카지노� Geoghegan said.맥스카지노�The monetization of our personal information is a problem that we should be concerned about.맥스카지노�