Roku Wants To Use Home Screen For New Types of Ads (thestreamable.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Streamable: Roku wants to take the term "ad-supported" to another level. The company held its quarterly earnings conference call on Thursday, and revealed that 81.6 million households used a Roku device or smart TV to stream video in the first three months of the year. As part of the report, company CEO Anthony Wood laid out ideas for how the company would increase revenues in 2024. Unsurprisingly, advertising will be an important centerpiece of that strategy, and Wood provided some details on what Roku users can expect from their ad experience going forward.
The idea of bringing more ads to the Roku home screen is nothing new, but that's what Wood focused on in his discussion with analysts about how to boost revenue on the Roku platform. The company has already begun putting more static ads on the screen, but now it appears that Roku is considering how to get video ads embedded into the home page as well. Wood said that he believes that a video-enabled ad unit on the Roku home screen will be "very popular with advertisers," considering that Roku devices have the reach to put ads in front of 120 million pairs of eyes every day. He also said that the company is "testing other types of video ad units, looking at other experiences" that it can bring to the Roku home screen.
As another way to boost ad revenues, Wood suggested that the company's home screen experiences could be leveraged to deliver more ads. He pointed to the NBA Zone, which Roku launched at the beginning of April as an example. Roku can use these themed content hubs to deliver ads more tailored to fans of that particular content, harnessing the power of popular sports to pull more ad revenue. Customers concerned that Roku will just gunk up their home screen with ads are likely wondering if the company has made any moves toward actually making the user experience on the platform better. The good news is that Roku has also introduced a recommended content row, that will compile picks from across various streaming services and use AI to point customers toward new shows and movies they might like. "There's lots of ways we're working on enhancing the home screen to make it more valuable to viewers but also increase the monetization," Wood said.
The idea of bringing more ads to the Roku home screen is nothing new, but that's what Wood focused on in his discussion with analysts about how to boost revenue on the Roku platform. The company has already begun putting more static ads on the screen, but now it appears that Roku is considering how to get video ads embedded into the home page as well. Wood said that he believes that a video-enabled ad unit on the Roku home screen will be "very popular with advertisers," considering that Roku devices have the reach to put ads in front of 120 million pairs of eyes every day. He also said that the company is "testing other types of video ad units, looking at other experiences" that it can bring to the Roku home screen.
As another way to boost ad revenues, Wood suggested that the company's home screen experiences could be leveraged to deliver more ads. He pointed to the NBA Zone, which Roku launched at the beginning of April as an example. Roku can use these themed content hubs to deliver ads more tailored to fans of that particular content, harnessing the power of popular sports to pull more ad revenue. Customers concerned that Roku will just gunk up their home screen with ads are likely wondering if the company has made any moves toward actually making the user experience on the platform better. The good news is that Roku has also introduced a recommended content row, that will compile picks from across various streaming services and use AI to point customers toward new shows and movies they might like. "There's lots of ways we're working on enhancing the home screen to make it more valuable to viewers but also increase the monetization," Wood said.
I'm sure. Next. (Score:5, Interesting)
Wood said that he believes that a video-enabled ad unit on the Roku home screen will be "very popular with advertisers," considering that Roku devices have the reach to put ads in front of 120 million pairs of eyes every day.
Popular with advertisers, sure. How about those 120 million customers -- er, consumers -- er, victims -- er, hostages -- er, sheep ...? Okay, just how *does* Roku think about the people on the receiving ends of stuff like this? (Asked by someone w/o a Roku device.)
Re:I'm sure. Next. (Score:5, Interesting)
It became apparent this was the direction they were going quite a long time ago. I haven't had one since the 2 XS (12+ years) and them thinking they're slick with ads being chief among the reasons. Fuck Roku.
Amazon is trying to pull this shit in subtle ways now too. Firestick menu will auto play ads for their prime shows and other shit now if you don't touch a button fast enough after activating it.
Re: I'm sure. Next. (Score:5, Informative)
There's a setting for that in the Preferences. It's the "Featured Content" section and you can turn off the auto play video or just have it mute by default there.
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There's a setting for that in the Preferences. It's the "Featured Content" section and you can turn off the auto play video or just have it mute by default there.
Thanks, I'll go looking for that tonight.
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Mein kampf actually isn't.
You are wrong.
As a cautionary tale, and a view into the mind of evil it was well worth reading.
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Dunno. Right now the ads dont stand out much, they're static, related to content of the channels (ie, not selling you Chryslers or McDonald's, but telling you that there's a new movie). Though a few very very tiny ads appeared in the cityscape that scrolls by on the screensaver. To go to a video ad would be very annoying I think. If the ads are streamed, this could chew up bandwidth which will anger customers beyond just having annoying ads. Not everyone has unlimited bandwidth. Possibly some customer
Re: I'm sure. Next. (Score:2)
I bought a Google TV because Roku gave up their only advantage, not showing ads on the home screen. Therefore there was no reason to get Roku when Google TVs have orders of magnitude more available apps. I don't understand why anyone would buy a Roku any more given that.
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Is it good? no. Is it better than not playing anything that night because everything needs update? Yup. Is it more or less absolutely fine if I'm streaming from a GPU two rooms away? Yes. Unfortunately, there's no *great* UI for this yet, in my opinion. Steam Link i
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An update screwed up my Nvidia Shield so they replaced it under warranty, even though it's about 5 years old at this point. Worth remembering that many companies cover failed software updates under warranty, even outside the warranty period.
Anyway, the replacement came with an old version of the OS, so I disabled updates. The new one is full of ads. The old one is largely ad-free and much, much faster.
My advice is to consider if you actually want software updates in future. Obviously you have to think about
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Wood said that he believes that a video-enabled ad unit on the Roku home screen will be "very popular with advertisers," considering that Roku devices have the reach to put ads in front of 120 million pairs of eyes every day.
Popular with advertisers, sure. How about those 120 million customers -- er, consumers -- er, victims -- er, hostages -- er, sheep ...? Okay, just how *does* Roku think about the people on the receiving ends of stuff like this? (Asked by someone w/o a Roku device.)
We've passed through the period of time where companies considered the customer, the people outright buying the product they are making, as the most important party of any given transaction. Some have refocused on prioritizing the company as some form of nether-god. But most have become self-feeding victims of the "advertising is free money" mantra. Any spare space viewing space, sometimes not even spare space, is considered money left on the table. And with the greed is our only god mentality we've engende
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Roku looks at those who buy Roku devices as the product Roku is selling to advertisers.
In future news, that you'll have to watch (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty soon we'll be in a Max Headroom [wikipedia.org] television dystopia where it's illegal to turn off your devices.
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We're headed here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Yeah I was thinking Idiocracy...
I think that movie was prophetic - the issue is that they were way optimistic in their timeline for how long it would take...
http://www.davidmcelroy.org/wp... [davidmcelroy.org]
But yeah maybe some strange love child of Max Headroom, Idiocracy and Johnny Mnemonic.
The gnomish plan for Roku (Score:2)
2.???
3.Profit.
Considering Roku doesn't have their own ad network, I am sure Google is giving them sweet deal to entice corporate suicide.
The more you try (Score:3)
The more ads you try to throw at me the more I actively ignore and block. They have the complete opposite effect.
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Most libraries are your friends. You already support them with your tax dollars.
One way or the other, you're going to pay; sadly, nothing in this life is free. You can definitely vote with your absence, but they will not miss your revenue because you didn't want to pay anyway.
Personally, I've cut off Prime and Netflix because of their need to continue to please Wall Street and the ad executives. YMMV, but a good book or listening to local live music is a great alternative.
If you put yourself into the subscr
This is why you can't leave an app open (Score:5, Interesting)
It used to be that you could leave an app open on your Roku and resume where you left off when you returned. Say you're watching a long YouTube video and hit the pause button and run to the store. When you got back the video was still paused and you could resume right where you left off.
At some point the functionality changed and now you're brought to the home screen after a period of inactivity.
Frustrated, I asked around in the forums only to be told this was an effort by Roku to force users to see ads displayed on the home screen. I was originally skeptical of the claim but now I realize that was Roku's plan all along.
I stopped using my Roku after that move. I've since switched to using the apps on the LG TV which don't "auto-stop" after a period of inactivity.
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And that period is comically small. Mine goes to the home screen after 30-60 seconds. It's ridiculous, but this makes sense.
Add it on the to reasons why I won't be buying another Roku device.
Roku (Score:1)
Why are businesses so intent on using the footgun? (Score:3)
Why are businesses so intent on shooting themselves in the foot? This seems like a terrific way to lose a bunch of customers.
Race to the bottom. Gotta love it. One more nail in the coffin.
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Any company that doesn't charge a subscription fee or charge a premium for their hardware will eventually turn to pimping out their customer base to advertisers to make money. Their employees aren't going to work for free and if they have shareholders they aren't going to be satisfied with a reasonable ROI.
Any other company similar to Rok
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I guess you could buy Apple's equivalent product, but that's going to cost you quite a bit more.
Already did, in 2016, when I was evaluating my choices for "streaming."
My choices were: Apple TV, Roku, Amazon. Or, custom ht pc with plex.
Apple won out, because a) I was already an iphone and ipad owner, and because it was the devil I knew vs. the devil I didn't know. Instead of the ht pc, I ended up pressing my laptop from 2011 into service as a 'ht pc' in name only, since there's no terabytes of ripped content in it. I never got around to ripping anything and putting in plex. I doubt if I ever will.
I d
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silent pc is not hard these days. a very old i5 that I built about 8 years ago still does great with 1080p content. I dont care beyond that.
tdp of 65w and less means you can run heatpipes in your pc and with onboard gfx (good enough for video) you have a silent pc.
install all the right ad blockers for YT and you get free 'tv' and generally full control. yes, install linux. no need for win (have not used win since win7 days).
I can also ssh and vnc into my other systems.
zero reason to use the sticks unles
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Clearly because it works. Same reason people are still sending emails on behalf of their good friend, the prince of Nigeria, even though that's become a literal meme.
Any company that doesn't charge a subscription fee or charge a premium for their hardware will eventually turn to pimping out their customer base to advertisers to make money. Their employees aren't going to work for free and if they have shareholders they aren't going to be satisfied with a reasonable ROI.
Any other company similar to Roku that you might buy from instead will eventually wind up in the same situation and start doing the same thing. I guess you'll have to buy another box and repeat the process all over again. I guess you could buy Apple's equivalent product, but that's going to cost you quite a bit more.
Apple TV.
No ads. No Subscription. You are Not The Product.
Buy the Box. Set it up.
From there, what Services and Apps you Install/Subscribe-to is entirely your own business. And several Streaming Services completely bypass Apple for Subscriptions; so, if you so choose, Apple doesn't have to make a single cent, other than for the purchase of the Set Top Box itself.
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Why are businesses so intent on shooting themselves in the foot? This seems like a terrific way to lose a bunch of customers.
Race to the bottom. Gotta love it. One more nail in the coffin.
Because, for some reason, advertising pays enough to make up for the tiny number of people that turn away from devices/networks that throw more ads at you. Netflix did it around the same time they started cracking down on account sharing for a net gain in overall subscriptions. Prime did it, with no discernable change in subscribers despite the mouthy protests online. They'll keep doing it because it makes money and doesn't seem to lead to any negative consequences.
Bait and switch (Score:2)
Bye? (Score:3)
>"Roku is considering how to get video ads embedded into the home page as well"
At that point, I will probably look for a different device or try to find a way to block it. I specifically chose to buy Rokus because they are ubiquitous and not annoying. Even shelled out for their top-of-the-line models.
I don't care much about a static image. But I simply can't stand videos or motion, of any type, in my field of view when I am trying to focus on something. I know it is probably something wrong with me, but I can't be alone. I wish I could throw this affliction at anyone designing stuff like that so they could get a taste of the hell.
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Further In To The Enshittocene Age (Score:2)
How the fuck does this merit the description "good news?" Here, let me translate this for you:
"We're going to take away the channel selection menu that you put together and prioritized according to your own wishes, and replace it with paid placements and whatever our half-baked Mechanical Turk ch
Long time Roku fan ... (Score:3)
I am a long term Roku fan and have multiple devices. This kind of garbage is how you get me to leave and never come back.
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Apple TV is heavily slanted towards paid content.
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Yes. My wife likes it but I found it much like the Amazon's Fire devices.where they were heavily biased toward their own services which is totally understandable but not what I want.
Roku *was* nice because it didn't have a clear bias. I did try an Nvidia shield last year but found it meh.
If you are just need/want Plex then a AppleTV seems like overkill.
This crap will push some folks to just run their own Plex server and a HTPC.
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Hardly heavily. You want heavy slant to paid content, try an NVidia Shield. The Apple TV is remarkably well behaved in this regard.
They've reinvented FireTV (Score:2)
Bah (Score:1)
You still have some control (Score:4, Informative)
I have a cheap Hisense Roku TV. It's pretty decent, although it's starting to get some backlight uniformity issues after 2 years even though I have the brightness on low. Despite this, the Smart TV features are responsive and work surprisingly well compared to other budget-level TVs I've used.
I was able to improve the experience and disable most ads, as well as opt out of tracking, but the settings are spread all over the place and sometimes aren't obvious:
Settings -> Home Screen -> "What to Watch" -> Disabled
Settings -> Home Screen -> "Featured Free" -> Disabled
Settings -> Privacy -> Advertising -> Personalized Ads -> Uncheck
Settings -> Privacy -> Smart TV Experience -> Use info from TV inputs -> Uncheck
Settings -> Theme -> Wallpapers -> Select a non-"Dynamic" wallpaper which will incorporate ads
Settings -> Theme -> Screensavers -> Select anything other than the Roku-sponsored screensavers, which incorporate flying ad banners.
There's still one ad panel in the home screen, but it just shows some generic Roku channel. Not the worst experience. If they try to add more ads, I hope they at least add another secret menu item to turn it off, otherwise I'll probably replace it.
Monetizing normals isn't a nerd issue. (Score:2)
It is however amusing to watch.
Bullet dodged! (Score:2)
Roku device or smart TV ...just nope (Score:2)
Enshittification complete, I guess.. (Score:2)
I'll switch to AppleTV 4k and maybe just a vanilla Rapbian OS for light youTube use...
I really like(d) my Rokus - I guess I've gotten my money's worth out of them -paid a one time price for each and used them for years to let me watch the various streaming services I used
YouTube
Nebula
Curiosity Stream
Wondrium (Formerly The Great Courses Plus)
NetFlix (now unsubscribed)
Hulu (now unsubscribed)
I think I set up Disney+ and Paramount when we would turn them on to binge stuff).. or that migh ahve been the AppleTV
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I would just like my Roku to quit crashing (Score:1)
Sounds like NetZero (Score:2)
Finally gave in... (Score:2)
I've had Chromecasts, three Rokus, three NVidia Shields, a couple of Kodi boxes, and some built-in TvOS solutions. I've tried it all. The Shield was my go-to for a while, except that streaming from NAS while wireless resulted in Kodi halting playback routinely. Eventually I was running everything off of my XBox series X. That actually worked pretty darned good, all things considered... except that I was using a power-hungry behemoth to watch Netflix...
The last straw for all other solutions was when I put a
Misprint? (Score:2)
And ... (Score:1)
Roku Wants To Use Home Screen For New Types of Ads
And, I want to use Roku for a doorstop.
Seriously, though, the Roku interface is a pain in the ass. There are so many much better options out there. Maybe this will get people to give those other options a try.
I'm out. (Score:2)
Ok, they were testing the limits of my extraordinarly finite patience for ads of any kind on content I'm paying to see....
*Warms up the soldering iron*
Time for some brain surgery on my "smart" Roku enabled TV and turn it into the digital equivalent of a potted plant.