Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features

A Walmart ads vehicle

This week’s announcement shows Walmart further integrating Vizio and looking to more deeply leverage Vizio OS’s ads and tracking capabilities to fuel its $6.4 billion ads business. In Vizio’s final quarter as its own company, its ad business made a gross profit of $115.8 million, and its hardware business lost $6.7 million. Walmart doesn’t break out Vizio’s financials, but in a February call with investors, John David Rainey, CFO and EVP of Walmart, said Vizio “saw triple-digit growth in advertising” during Walmart’s fiscal Q4 2026.

While Vizio OS has required a Vizio account since mid-2024 (before Walmart’s acquisition), an account connected to a retail conglomerate has additional and more obvious implications for TVs being used to convince users to buy stuff—particularly from Walmart. Those who may have tolerated making an account with an ad-centric TV brand might resist making one with Walmart.

“The new, streamlined login simplifies setup while establishing a secure identity framework across devices, connecting streaming engagement directly with retail interaction,” Walmart’s announcement said.

Furthering Vizio TVs’ transformation into a Walmart ad vehicle, Walmart announced this week that Vizio OS will show ads for beauty brand L’Oréal that connect to Walmart’s and other companies’ product pages.

For years, Vizio has been transforming from a solidly priced TV brand into an ad business. Over a year after buying Vizio, Walmart is poised to completely push Vizio over that threshold, if it isn’t there already.

Ads and tracking have become nearly impossible to avoid among lower-priced TVs and are becoming more common in premium options, making the elusive dumb TV and other smart TV alternatives increasingly attractive.