Roku Tests Putting Ads In the Worst Place

The business of streaming is revolving more and more around how many ads users are willing to sit through for the sake of cheap content. Roku is pushing that deal to the limit with its first tests for ads that play in the worst place possible, just before you load your home screen. As can be expected, users are less than thrilled with being forced to watch commercials just to select the app they’ll use (which will likely result in them watching even more ads). Users on Reddit have posted their experience randomly receiving an “unskippable” ad before accessing the home screen. Most people said the ad was for Disney’s Moana 2. A Roku spokesperson confirmed these anecdotal reports in a statement sent to Gizmodo, calling it a “test” of ways to show ad programming while maintaining “a delightful and simple user experience.” Roku has indicated the ad was skippable, though it’s unclear if users didn’t see the option to end the video player early. We asked Roku whether the ad test was being ... Read full article.