The business of streaming is revolving more and more Around how many ads users are willing to sit through for the sale of cheap content. Roku is pushing that deal to the limit with its first tests for ads that play in thewest place possible, just before you load your home screen. As can be expected, users are lessed with being forced to watch commercials just to select the app they’ll use (which will likely result in them watching even).
Users on Reddit Have posted their experience randomly receiving an “Unskippable” ad before accessing the home screen. Most people said the ad was for disney’s Moana 2A Roku speakesperson confirmed these anecdotal reports in a state to gizmodo, calling it a “test” of women of women to show ad programming whichful and simple use experience “
Roku has indicated the ad was skippable, thought it’s untilar if users didn’t see the option to end the video player early. We asked Roku Whether the Ad Test Was Being Restricted to Smart TVS Roku OS or Any of the Set Top Boxes, but the company didnys to those queries.
Roku users on reddit were none too happy with the sudden influx of ads before they could eat even choose the content they are wanted to watch. On the official Roku forumsSome users promised to “trash” their boxes if these ads became permanent.
The real question is how much the wider Roku Audience will care if Roku becomes flooded with even more ads. Other than its streaming gear, roku is prominent on many tCL-brand tvs, which only helps add to its popularity along with the free, ad-based Roku Channel. In January, the company Claimed Its userbase had reacted Close to 90 Million Households in the Us, Canada, and Mexico. Which is a lot of boxes to serve ads on.
Roku has almost Always Depended on ads And its data harvesting apparatus. The company collects data on users which it can then sold The same can be said for many smart tv operating systems, including the likes of amazon’s fire tv and vizio with its smartcast os. Last year, Walmart boght vizio’s brand for $ 2.3 billionMostly for the Sake of Its User Data.
But the companies are running out of place to show that. Last April, Roku’s Ceo Anthony Wood Described Plans to put more video ads on the home screen. This was in a spot he referred to as “the Marquee” which normally shows a single static ad. This news came after patents showed Roku Had Investigated How it could show ads to users When they posed content on third-party hardwareSuch as a video game console. While this hasn’t enacted on eater Roku boxes or smart tvs running Roku OS, it was a sign of how the company is looking to boost revaneue.
In its Latest earnings callThe company further positioned ads as its main business driver. Wood Told Investors that their strategy is to “Make better use of our homescreen,” Beyond Marquee Ads. “We are very careful about putting ads on our homescreen.” The ceo further implied the company Didn Bollywood to “Break” The Homescreen, Saying “We’re very focused on bot driving more monetization more monetization but also also driving incredomer satisfaction.
When “enshittifcation“Is the end result of tech companies Exacerbated when companies like warner bros. discovery are pulling content off their platforms, most recently the Entre Library of Classic Looney ToonsNow, one of the best and Increasing Faw Ways of Watching Bunny Stick it to Elmer FUDD is by Watching it on Roku,
If enough people grow tired of the ad load on Roku, you may find some users going “duck season” on their set top boxes.