What LG's ACR does¶
Automatic content recognition (ACR) is how an LG TV works out what is being watched on it. This page sets out what LG and its advertising arm say the data is for, what the firmware on the tested TVs shows, and which Native Tv controls act on it. Claims are LG's own unless marked otherwise.
Who receives it¶
LG Ad Solutions, formerly Alphonso, is LG's majority-owned advertising
business. Alphonso ran ACR for LG before the takeover, and its servers
(prov-lg.alphonso.tv, eulacheck.alphonso.tv) are still the ones the
firmware contacts to set ACR up. LG Ad Solutions advertises reach across
49 million addressable TVs in the US and 216 million worldwide
(factsheet).
What it recognises¶
LG Ad Solutions describes its ACR as measuring viewing "at the glass level": programmes, films, ads, games and streaming apps as they appear on the TV, across broadcast and streaming (technology).
LG's own statement of 12 September 2026 is narrower. It says ACR uses audio fingerprinting, collects no screenshots or recordings, and runs on live TV, HDMI inputs and LG Channels but not inside third-party apps such as Netflix or YouTube (statement). The statement followed an investigation by Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs, which reported ACR fingerprinting both audio and video, including HDMI sources (summary).
On the B8 (webOS 4.4, firmware 05.50.70) the ACR client, acr2, contains
both an audio capture path and a video capture path that can read the
displayed picture or the incoming source, and its service reports a video
capture status and speed. The statement does not say which models or
firmware its description covers.
What it is used for¶
LG Ad Solutions lists the audiences advertisers can buy from ACR data (technology):
- viewers of particular shows, networks, apps, services and genres;
- the devices and pay-TV or streaming services a household uses, loyalty to them, and when it subscribes or cancels;
- which games consoles and titles are played;
- how much TV is watched, including light and heavy viewers, cord cutters and ad skippers;
- region, city and ZIP code;
- which ads have already been seen, and how often.
It also offers to reach "the connected LG household beyond the TV" on phones, tablets and computers, and to measure campaigns by reach, frequency, attribution and brand lift (solutions). Neither page says how a TV is linked to other devices. Industry practice is to match on the shared home IP address (AdExchanger). LG's statement says that sharing for interest-based and cross-device advertising needs consent beyond the Viewing Information Agreement.
What controls it¶
LG says ACR is off until the Viewing Information Agreement is accepted. A
packet capture of a factory-reset LG OLED (model and firmware not given)
showed the TV contacting eu-acr86.alphonso.tv on port 4433, and looking up
FI.info.lgsmartad.com, while its setup was still showing the agreements
with nothing accepted. That shows the connection, not whether recognition
was running
(Huttunen, Fabricati Diem).
Several agreement flags decide whether ACR runs and what its data may be used for; the Privacy tab lists each under a descriptive name:
| Flag in the Privacy tab | Controls |
|---|---|
| Screen content recognition | ACR itself, where the ACR client reads it |
| Screen recognition (GDPR consent) | the EU consent record for ACR |
| Screen recognition (master consent) | ACR on webOS 4.10; on firmware with a service that places ads over live TV, read by it with personalised advertising |
| Ads based on what you watch | using recognised content to choose ads |
| Sharing viewing data with data partners | LG and Alphonso passing viewing and device data to other companies |
| Personalised advertising | interest-based ads |
Which flag the ACR client, acr2, reads differs by firmware. On a C9
(webOS 4.10.2, firmware 05.50.00) it names acrOnAllowed, the master
consent, and not acrAllowed.
Native Tv's ACR switch sets the TV's Live Plus setting and whichever of the
two flags the client on the TV names, or acrAllowed where it names
neither. Withdrawing the master consent withdraws the agreements it rests on,
and with them any other flag resting on those agreements. Which flag starts
ACR has not been confirmed: on that C9 none of them did while the ad
blocker kept the TV from authenticating with LG.
Switching the flags off stops the TV acting on them. The ad blocker's Ads & telemetry mode also blocks the Alphonso servers LG Ad Solutions runs ACR through, so a TV that still has a flag on, or re-enables one after a firmware update, has nowhere to send the data.