Are you ready to see video ads on your Roku home screen? Last April, it was announced that Roku was working on video ads for its home screens. Amazon has put full screen video ads on their home screen. Now these videos have gone live, as confirmed by Cord Cutters News, but in a very non annoying way.
During Roku’s first quarter 2024 earnings call, Roku’s CEO was asked about ad revenue and the home screen. Anthony Wood said:
But to give you some examples of the kinds of things we’re looking at on the home screen, on the home screen today, there’s the premier video app we called the Marquee and that traditionally has been a static ad. We’re going to add video to that ad. So that will be the first video ad in that we add to the home screen. That will be a big change for us.” Wood went on to say, “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. So that’s something we’re looking at.
These new ads play inside the large right-hand side ad banner on the home screen. Unlike other streaming players, Roku, for now, is not doing full-size video ads that take over your full screen. Roku is also not adding any new ad blocks to its home screen. Instead, Roku is replacing banner ads with video ads. In the ads seen by Cord Cutters News, the new video ads promoted Tubi.
In the past Roku had static images in these ad spots or mild moving gifs now they are full video ads.
Right now, Roku and other companies are facing a weak ad market that is pushing down the price of ads. This is cutting into the revenue Roku makes. Video ads are some of the most profitable ads on the market. Replacing stock ads with video ads will help Roku raise revenue. This all comes as Roku is losing money right now according to its 1st quarter 2024 earnings report.
It is still possible Roku will do other video ads but for now these are the only video ads on the Roku home screen.
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