ROKU has said it will adopt a new feature from its rivals – one that is arguably the most hated addition to TV screens in recent times.
The Fire TV and Google TV competitor has announced it will begin displaying video ads – and more – on its home screen.
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Amazon’s Fire TV introduced the “nonsense” feature in March last year, which caused customers to feel like they were being ‘force fed’ ads in their own homes.
Now Roku has swallowed more market share – growing its number of streaming households by 14 per cent since last year – it is deploying the same tactics as its rivals.
Ads… the lazy way to make money. I guess @Roku is all out of ideas to move forward.
@rmsalt, X user
Roku already has a static ad space on its home screen.
But during a recent earnings call, where it was announced Roku’s annual revenue jumped to $755m (£602m), CEO Anthony Wood said: “We’re going to add video to that ad.
“So that will be the first video ad that we add to the home screen.”
Wood didn’t specify whether the upcoming video ads would auto-play.
But it’s suspected that Roku will introduce auto-playing ads like its competitors.
“We’re also testing other types of video ad units, looking at other experiences we can add to the home screen that would be where we can innovate more video advertising,” added Wood.
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“So there’s lots of ways we’re working on enhancing the home screen to make it more valuable to viewers but also increase the monetisation on the home stream.”
‘Money hungry’
Like Amazon and Google customers of the past, Roku viewers have called the company “money hungry” and have threatened to boycott the service if they cannot switch off auto-play.
Viewers have previously complained that auto-playing adverts with sound are jumpscares – particularly if the TV was turned up the night before.
“Ugh if they do this and they auto-play with sound I will get rid of all my Roku devices,” one customer wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Another added: “I was thinking to myself today why can’t I watch more ads on a device that I paid for??
“The joy of money hungry steaming device companies. Maybe I need to look into Apple TV. I believe they can make money without ads.”
A third viewer wrote: “Ads… the lazy way to make money. I guess @Roku is all out of ideas to move forward.”
Not ad-ding up…
Analysis by Millie Turner, Technology & Science Reporter for The Sun
Despite being a ‘lazy way to make money,’ in the words of customers, tech companies are increasingly leaning on ads to up their profits.
If it’s not Roku and Fire TV planting video ads on people’s TV screens, it’s Netflix and Disney+ introducing adverts to previously ad-free subscription tiers.
But it comes at the cost of customers who want to forget that they – and their eyeballs – are a commodity, and not just the services they’re paying for.
Customers know that adverts are a necessary-evil in the exchange of cash for telly, and have known since the first TV ad aired in 1941.
It’s this new invasiveness of advertisements – videos that auto-play with sound the second your TV powers up – that has left customers with a sense of unease they can’t seem to shake.
Folks on the hunt for good telly and gripping stories are increasingly turning to free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels to escape the hamster wheel of paying a company they quietly begrudge.
Or, according to a sea of comments on social media, viewers are opting for more dubious options, like piracy, which is a lose-lose for both their tech security and the film and TV industry.
The corporate appetite for ads doesn’t seem to be slowing.
Whether the trend will create a space for more FAST apps, a dependency on piracy, or even more inescapable ads, remains to be seen.