In this week's edition of his book Low pass the news, Janko Roettgers covered a Roku patent that seems to indicate that the company is planning some heavy advertising tactics for those who buy Roku TVs. The patent centers around the idea of displaying ads on these TVs when they are set to a paused or idle HDMI input. In theory, this would allow Roku to serve ads throughout your entire TV experience — and in places where it's not possible to do so today. A PS5, Xbox, Apple TV or Blu-ray player could become another canvas for the company to continue growing its already profitable advertising business.
According to the patent, the company will use a number of different clues to determine when to pause an HDMI source; A Roku TV can wait for an extended period of silence for audio or simply analyze the frames on screen to measure when the action has stopped, among other methods. The patent states the use Automatic content recognition (ACR) to detect what you're watching on Apple TV (or playing on console) to present it with relevant ads. ACR is nothing new and is one of the things many of us agree to when quickly doing the initial setup of a new TV.
Obviously, it would be very easy for Roku to screw this up in a big way, interrupt your entertainment, and piss off customers. The patent itself does not guarantee that the concept of advertising on every HDMI input will become a reality. But it follows the recent trend of box (and stick) makers pushing directly against the line of what consumers are willing to tolerate — and testing whether they can quietly move the goalposts. Even Microsoft does the same thing.
A few months ago, Amazon began automatically playing trailers on Fire TV devices right upon startup if the user didn't take any immediate action. This move certainly did It makes a lot of people angry – But apparently it is not at a sufficient level for the company to undo the change. You can avoid auto-playing ads by disabling them in settings, but even then, you'll occasionally see slideshows of full-screen banner images.
I had a very strong “they can't be serious about this” reaction to the spot ads and requested comment from Amazon. Spokesperson Madison Daniels told me the following:
We're constantly looking for more ways to help customers discover new TV shows and movies on Fire TV, and ads are one way we're doing that. Our latest update to the Fire TV home screen means customers will start pressing the Learn More button on one of our most popular placements to discover something great to watch.
Isn't discoverability the primary purpose of the home screen itself? I digress. Not long after that, a Chromecast user discovered it This is a full screen ad for tender chicken casings From Carl's Jr. Does the packaging look delicious? definitely. But this goes beyond the typical (and I would say expected/acceptable) type of advertising we're used to seeing. Sponsored “recommendations” for movies and shows have become very popular across TV and streaming platforms. But chicken wrap? Let's go.
The inescapable fact is that advertising helps subsidize the cost of these streaming players, some of which can be purchased for less than $30. But you could also spend $100 more than that on a Fire TV Cube, and you'll be surprised by the same auto-playing ads as someone who bought the cheapest model. This is a perfect example of where this deceptive ad really rubs me the wrong way. What's the point of having something special?
That's why I always advise people to spend the extra money on the Apple TV 4K. Being exempt from being inundated with ads is worth it. There are ways to circumvent ads on other devices, whether it's Pi-hole, alternative launchers (on Android streaming devices), and more. But these are extra steps that most people will never take. For them, the outlook is getting bleaker.
I Hopes Roku does not implement the ideas set forth in this patent that it covers Low pass. Roku TVs are often good! It's reliable, gets a long way from software updates, and feels instantly familiar to many people right out of the box. I'm looking forward to checking out how the Roku Pro TV compares to today's great Mini LED competition from TCL, Hisense, and more. But I'm not Confident The company is not going to make us rush down this path of putting ads in front of our eyeballs at any cost. Even if Roku doesn't do this, it seems like it's only a matter of time before another TV brand gets the worst kind of inspiration from this patent.
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