DirecTV Turns Idle TVs Into AI-Powered Shoppable Screensavers

What DirecTV Is Rolling Out

DirecTV has teamed up with Glance to replace the familiar idle screensaver with AI-generated, shoppable scenes. After about ten minutes of inactivity, your TV will display personalized images that can feature your face, your pet, or a vibe that matches your preferences. The twist: many objects in those scenes will be immediately purchasable via QR codes.

How It Works

Glance’s technology generates visuals and maps elements in those images to real products online. You can adjust the look of the scene with voice prompts like ‘make it brighter’ or ‘add plants over there.’ If a virtual lamp or sofa catches your eye, scanning a QR code on the screen will let you buy it instantly. Glance says its system can match imagery to over a trillion products across the web.

Personalization Meets Advertising

This is an evolution of Glance’s previous experiments with lock-screen content on smartphones, where the border between personalization and monetized content has already blurred. With this move to TVs, that monetization gets a larger canvas: your living room. The result is a hybrid of artful imagery and targeted ads designed to convert idle attention into commerce.

Privacy, Comfort, and the Uncanny Valley

There are immediate questions about how comfortable people will be with AI-generated scenes that include likenesses of themselves or family members. Some viewers might find it engaging, while others may see it as intrusive or eerie. Beyond discomfort, there are real privacy concerns about how images and behavioral data are used to tailor these shoppable moments.

Part of a Bigger Advertising Push

This initiative fits into a broader trend of media companies and ad agencies investing heavily in AI-driven personalization. Major firms are already striking multimillion-dollar AI deals to produce hyper-targeted marketing content. Streaming devices and apps are increasingly prime targets for these ad formats, turning previously unused screen time into commercial opportunities.

What to Watch For

The main variables that will determine success are user reception and regulatory response. Will audiences accept AI-enhanced, buyable screensavers, or will they reject the intrusion by switching off personalization features? Regulators are already scrutinizing AI personalization, and policy decisions could shape how aggressively companies push this kind of tech.

DirecTV and Glance are testing whether idle TV moments can become a new retail gateway. It may be clever and potentially lucrative, but it also raises questions about the changing relationship between our living spaces and commerce.