But subjects where there's a right and wrong answer (basically, all of STEM), I don't think this is such a good idea....

Here's how I would do it if I was a software developer at Big TV corp (and I had no conscience):

On the TV:
Every minute the TV is on, sample a small set of scattered pixels at known locations. Say, 10 pixels x 3 bytes per pixel (Red, Green Blue) = 240 bits. Upload this to Big TV corp every day or so.

At Big TV corp's servers:
Play every popular TV show and youtube video as they come out, and gather the 240bit 'signature' for every frame. Match Customer's signatures with the show signatures.

Build profile of user based on viewing patterns/location etc.

Spam Ads and Profit (but lose your soul).

Same as the old Microsoft.

Don't you mean:

WhitespaceisdumbChangemymind.?

I lived in Christchurch from the early 90's through to the end of the year of earthquakes (2011). Munted was a term that was used at least as far back as the early 90's. And Christchurch got 'munted' 4 times with earthquakes - there were four quakes big enough to topple brick structures, liquify the ground, open up car-swallowing holes, and cover our road with silt. The last was on 23 Dec 2011 - I have a photo of my 11 year old son standing in a hole in the road with the road level at his shoulder. We left 2 days later because I couldn't find any work as a software dev. there. I don't recall hearing "munted" with an expletive prefix often, but the people I hung around with weren't big expletive users.