Summary
- Roku introduces Pause Ads, turning the pause screen into ad space—inescapable even when you pause.
- Ads are easy to dismiss, but still intrusive in Roku’s pursuit of new advertising avenues.
- While currently limited to Roku platform, future ad implementations could be even worse.
Everyone’s less favorite part of streaming services is the fact that they seem to be packed with more and more ads every time. If you have a Roku streaming device or TV, you now won’t be able to escape ads even if you pause your playback.
Roku is now adding a brand new ad format called “Pause Ads.” The change transforms the previously static pause screen into an active space for ads and marketing messages—yes, you will be shown ads when you pause your show or movie, and you’re going to like it. The mechanism for these pause ads involves displaying a commercial or promotional graphic on the screen when a user temporarily stops their movie, TV show, or other video content.
They shouldn’t be obnoxious or loud ads, and they are relatively easy to dismiss—all you need to do if you want the ad to go away is to resume watching your content. Roku is just using this previously unoccupied space and taking full advantage of it. For what it’s worth, they might be less intrusive than ads being injected mid-watch, but they’re still ads and some people might be put off by them.
Roku has been transparent about its intentions to explore new advertising avenues, including some on the shadier side. Last year, reports highlighted a patent filed by the company detailing how such advertisements could be implemented over HDMI inputs, which would presumably insert Roku ads over other streaming services. This is absolutely diabolical, if you ask me, and it could be particularly offensive for some users who might be paying for discounted, ad-supported streaming services like Netflix or Disney+. The company also recently conducted tests involving ads that would appear immediately when a television connected to a Roku device is powered on, even before the user navigates to the home screen or selects an application.
Related
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Thankfully, the current implementation of this specific ad format seems to be limited to content streamed directly through the Roku platform, but don’t be surprised if this gets even more obnoxious in the future. After all, we’re normalizing these ads taking over our TVs completely. Roku’s ads are famously annoying and intrusive, which is probably the price you pay for streaming devices and a lot of Roku-powered TVs being on the cheaper side. It sucks, but it’s what we have. Keep an eye out for this new ad format coming soon to a TV near you.
Source: Roku via 9to5Google
