Yeah I also don’t know why that’s some sort of established truth but it’s been going around for years now. It especially took off a couple of years back when a manufacturer exec (Bravia? Can’t find link now) said as much. I assume the info they can sell must be worth quite a lot of money if they can throw $50 or $100 worth of stuff in it “for free”, where many of the TVs probably never even get an internet connection!

That leads me to another guess: manufacturers can’t have people not connect their TVs. So they’ll start offering rebates that you only get if you plug your tv to the internet.