Or one could just, you know, not connect it to the Internet rather than ripping apart your new TV.

I'm sure sooner or later TVs will demand to connect to an "activation server" before they start working. And soon after that continuous internet access.

You know, for your own protection of course. You wouldn't want to miss out on exciting content recommendation features and AI integration! Your life isn't complete without a constant guided tour of all the wonderful things surveillance capitalism has to offer, after all.

Some TV's (unverified) were said to use available open/ring-camera WiFi's to ping the owner. Think I've read about it in some hn comment.