If you own a smart TV running Roku software, there’s a chance you may start seeing ads appear over live broadcasts.
As Ars Technica reports, the ads aren’t appearing for anyone who uses Roku’s own hardware such as the Roku Streaming Stick, or Roku Streambar. Instead, it’s third-party manufacturers who opted to use Roku’s software for their hardware taking advantage of the ability to insert advertising as you watch.
In a Reddit thread, an image of a Sharp TV running Roku software shows a banner ad for a bed quiz on top of a live broadcast along with the option to “Press OK to get offer.” The ads have appeared without any warning or explanation, but are clearly not desirable for the majority of viewers.
A user named reinking on the Reddit thread points out you can stop the ads appearing by navigating to Settings > Privacy > Smart TV Experience and disabling the option “Use info from TV inputs.” However, it’s unclear what other functionality may be lost by disabling that feature.
The reason why a smart TV manufacturer would introduce ads is obvious: it’s a new revenue stream on a device that doesn’t carry a big profit margin. You can tweak the settings to try and stop this happening, or for a more permanent solution simply don’t allow your TV to connect to the internet. Treat it as a dumb TV and plug in a separate streaming device instead.
