Roku's Pause-Screen Ads Have Started Showing Up In The Wild

Contents

Summary

Following a trend seen on platforms like Prime Video and YouTube, users are now reporting the appearance of pause-screen ads on their Roku devices.
A key concern is that these ads are appearing even for customers who are subscribed to ad-free plans on specific apps.
Despite the uncertainty, evidence including user reports of ads across various content, a Roku patent for showing ads on external devices, and Roku’s own advertising site promoting “Direct I/O” pause ads points toward Roku being directly responsible for enabling these advertisements.

In May last year, Amazon Prime Video rolled out ads that it described as “interactive and shoppable,” including ads that show up when you pause the content that you were watching. YouTube, the ad-supported final boss, followed suit.

The streaming giant started testing pause-screen ads on the YouTube app for TVs. It highlights ads in a column placed to the right of the paused video, with clear tags to dismiss the ad or find more information about it.

Now, following in the footsteps of YouTube and Prime Video, another streaming giant has begun experimenting with pause-screen ads.

For reference, earlier in March this year, Roku got major flak for testing launch/startup screen ads. Two months in, Roku users are now reporting seeing ads when they pause playback, but it isn’t entirely clear if Roku is pushing said ads or the apps running on it.

Pointed out by the folks over at TechIssuesToday and several disgruntled customers on Reddit and Roku’s own community forum, pause-screen ads are popping up despite users having ad-free plans for specific apps. “My Streambar Pro has started to show static ads when the playback is paused. It doesn’t happen every time, but we seen it about half a dozen times. We’ve seen this in the Discovery+ app (where we have the ad-free plan),” wrote user frobnitz.

Some users in the thread pointed out that the ad in frobnitz’s case might have been served by Discovery, which might be true, but there are also reasons to believe that Roku’s pause-screen ads are pushed by the system.

Roku’s fingerprints

A screenshot highlighting an unhappy Roku user's complaint post about seeing pause-screen ads.

User BadBiz, in a Roku community forum post, indicated that they’re seeing pause-screen ads on “all apps, shows, [and] movies.” Additionally, Ars Technica has previously spotted a patent that suggests Roku might be capable of showing pause-screen ads on external devices connected over HDMI, making implementation on its own devices a relatively easy task.

Elsewhere, Roku has previously shared information about pause-screen ads and the format’s potential benefits on its Roku Advertising website, suggesting that the format encourages users to “learn more,” allowing advertisers to present their brand “without disrupting the viewing experience,” and how the format has been found to offer an 8 percent lift in consideration for brands utilizing it.

The page also suggests that these are “Direct I/O” ads, which means that advertisers buy the ad space directly from Roku, and not via automated bidding platforms (programmatic) or via an ad manager. This essentially means that the pause-screen ads that you’re seeing originate from companies, but ultimately it is Roku that is facilitating their appearance on your device(s).