MyTelevisionHQ New Tab - How to remove

Online streaming of TV series and films is a great way to get quality entertainment very easily. MyTelevisionHQ (or My Television HQ) new tab extension attempts to get in on the excitement – it’s a browser add-on that’s supposed to help people access quality streaming services. Ads for MyTelevisionHQ use slogans like “Watch Free Online TV*” and “Watch Free Shows*” – and this makes it look a bit like MyTelevisionHQ is a free streaming service when, in reality, it’s nothing like that.

A dishonest browser hijacker

MyTelevisionHQ replaces your new tab page to include links to various existing streaming services, some of which are unavailable in the user’s country, while others require subscription and are not at all “Free”. In MyTelevisionHQ’s description, access to free and paid streaming services is being conflated in a way that almost implies that users get free access to paid services, which is not true. So, you could say that MyTelevisionHQ’s advertisement is quite dishonest.

MyTelevisionHQ is a potentially unwanted program:

Type of threat	Browser hijacker Adware
What’s wrong with MyTelevisionHQ?	Collects demographic info and browsing data  Promotes its own search engine and doesn’t allow another one to be used in the new tab Misrepresents its functions in advertising
Distribution and installation	Ads Organic search Bundling
MyTelevisionHQ removal	Delete malware (Combo Cleaner for Mac, SpyHunter for PC) Remove MyTelevisionHQ new tab manually from your browser

But misrepresenting how useful it is isn’t the thing that earns the MyTelevisionHQ new tab installer the status of adware and PUP. This extension is ultimately meant to help its creators popularize MyWay and get more users to go to that site. This raises their advertising revenue, especially when combined with the browsing data that MyTelevisionHQ gets by tracking the activity of each user and behavioral ads shown elsewhere on the internet. MyTelevisionHQ new tab hijacker is made by an advertising business. This isn’t illegal or anything, but it also doesn’t put the users’ best interest up-front, so antivirus vendors mark MyTelevisionHQ and other search hijackers as potentially unwanted and warn users to seriously consider before installing them.

MyTelevisionHQ new tab extension is part of a big group of browser extensions released by Mindspark Interactive Network, a company that has created dozens of similar browser add-ons. Some examples include YouClips, TelevisionFanatic, CinematicFanatic, FilmFanatic, and a bunch of others. All these add-ons don’t look like they’ve had a lot of effort put into them. Here’s what you can do – pick the websites that are important to you and save them in your bookmarks. Or add shortcuts to them to your new tab page manually. It takes only a few seconds, you can customize that, and you’re not being spied on by an advertising company.

How MyTelevisionHQ spreads

The MyTelevisionHQ new tab is being distributed quite actively. Tens of thousands of people from countries all over the world have this add-on in their browser. There are a few ways they find it:

• Organic search – people find MyTelevisionHQ when they search for free streaming sites.
• Ads are used to promote MyTelevisionHQ on social media sites and streaming sites.
• Bundling – MyTelevisionHQ comes with some free program and is offered as an optional install during setup.

A lot of browser hijackers also use ads that are quite aggressive and deceptive, tricking people to install add-ons they don’t want and working with adware like Pushsub.club and Install.notify-service.com, but so far, I haven’t seen MyTelevisionHQ doing that.

Bundling can also result in unwanted installation because users often miss these offers and they’re, by default, checked. How-To Geek wrote an article that illustrates the various ways that unwanted software is pushed to users who just want to download a free program: hiding important options in boring text, changing around the buttons, etc. Hijackers like MyTelevisionHQ are a common inclusion, but not the worst – if bundling is how you got this new tab add-on, you might want to scan your computer to check for more junkware.

How to remove MyTelevisionHQ

So, MyTelevisionHQ new tab sometimes gets installed without the user’s knowledge, collects demographic and browsing data on them, and is as useful as a set of bookmarks. Though there’s nothing really wrong with continuing to use it, it also doesn’t offer good reasons to – no free access to paid streaming sites, no way to customize your list, and the new tab page is hijacked. Whether you decide to remove it or not, it’s advisable to scan your computer with an anti-malware tool (like Combo Cleaner for Mac, SpyHunter for PC, or another trusted program) because, depending on how MyTelevisionHQ was installed, other PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) might have been installed together, especially other browser add-ons.

Automatic Malware removal tools

TopRemoving MyTelevisionHQ New Tab from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to MyTelevisionHQ. Click on the trash bin icon next to MyTelevisionHQ New Tab or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to MyTelevisionHQ, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving MyTelevisionHQ New Tab from Firefox

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything MyTelevisionHQ related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to MyTelevisionHQ New Tab, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemove malicious extensions from Internet Explorer

• Press on the Gear icon→Manage Add-ons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to MyTelevisionHQ and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Close the Options.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to MyTelevisionHQ New Tab, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Press on the Gear icon->Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset button.
  
• Select a “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
  
• Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.