Roku has long had ads on their menu system for a range of channels and products. They have even changed the theme on Rokus to match events, and often, such as when Star Wars came out, a new channel or movie they want to promote.
Now Roku has is testing ads on their screensaver to promote channels available on Roku players. Most of the ads we have seen are for channels on the Roku. The billboards that scroll by seem to be in two formats: one a horizontal billboard and the other a vertical billboard.
The ads are interactive allowing you to install a channel or play a trailer right in the screensaver.
Currently we are unsure what devices are displaying these ads. The TCL Roku TV we have has them, but the Roku 1 still just shows the bouncing Roku logo. (Sadly, this week I am out of the office and without all of our test units.)
We reached out to Roku for comment and they confirmed that Roku is testing ads on their screensaver for a “small” number of users.
This really should be no surprise to anyone that Roku has ads on their screensaver. Roku is the #1 ad seller for streaming media players. They are also not alone in having ads in their menus as Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV all have some kind of ads on at least their home screen and many have speculated that an ad-supported Fire TV similar to the ad-supported Kindle is coming soon.
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