Roku Wants You To See a Lot More AI-Generated Ads

Roku plans to dramatically expand its advertiser base from 200 to 100,000 companies using generative AI tools, CFO Dan Jedda told investors at recent conferences. The streaming platform, which commands over 20% of US TV viewing and reaches half of broadband households, is currently "roughly half sold out" on ad inventory. Jedda said small businesses can create commercials "within minutes" using AI tools Roku has integrated into its self-serve platform.

Ditched ROKU Long ago

[ameline]

A few years ago I bought one just to use for netflix. ROKU wanted my CC#, and refused to let me set it up in any way without that information.

I returned the unit for a full refund, and I will never use ROKU again.

I only use Apple TV, and same for my family. At least there is some semblance of privacy in the Apple ecosystem.

CC# is not necessary

[atrimtab]

You can use Roku without giving them a CC#.

And they are easier to use for older people than the alternatives.

At least that's the result of my over a decade test on a single participant.

Re:

[Hamsterdan]

When I set up mine I didn't have to give it a CC. I didn't have to on my Shield Pro either.

The Enshitification of Roku begins

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

It had to happen.

Re:

[awwshit]

No, that happened years ago when they merged with an ad company. Roku is just an on-ramp to advertising.

Re:

[Monoman]

Long time Roku fan but the last few years has changed that. The ads, the hardware, the support ... all downhill. It is such a shame because IMO they still have the least shitty interface.

Re:

[allo]

Didn't they start a few years ago to integrate ads based on what the customer watched?

Can't they just stick with hardware?

[sabbede]

My Rokus are great little devices. For now, at least. I don't want this.

They may just be talking about the "Roku Channel" though, I can live with that. Especially since I seem to be able to block them.

Viewer Experience

[TwistedGreen]

This has actually been a major problem for Roku. If I'm bored enough to watch some of their free-to-stream channels, I'll often get ad breaks with no ads, just a countdown timer says "We'll be back in a few minutes," or I'll just see ads for other Roku channels which are obviously just filler content. I assume this is because they don't have any paid advertisers who want to target me. If the problem is that producing ads is just too expensive for a lot of potential advertisers, this is going to be an interesting change to the viewer experience.

Roku wants? Roku can get fucked.

[newcastlejon]

As if the scammers using AI slop on YouTube weren't bad enough. The way things are going I'm tempted to switch back to broadcast TV; the ads may be unskippable but at least they're regulated.

Nuke it from orbit

[Hamsterdan]

OPNsense + Adguard.

Done

"You make HARDware," he screamed at their lawyers.

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Any feasible way we can replace, or possibly have already replaced, a Roku with a Raspberry PI?

Re:

[serafean]

Libreelec, and a NAS.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Not if you want to watch Netflix

Re:

[madbrain]

I was able to watch Netflix using Libreelec on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ in the past.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Yes you can watch it without a licensed device but only at reduced quality, similar to watching in a web browser with DRM disabled.

Re:

[jenningsthecat]

Not if you want to watch Netflix

Lots of Netflix stuff shows up on Bittorrent, and it's usually pretty current. Or so I hear, from friends...

With the crap they started auto adding

[Howard Beale]

to the Home screen, I got rid of both my Rokus. Now using Onn streaming devices with Nova launcher. This confirms my decision was a good one.

Roku what?

[gary s]

What Roku, The product, TV, streaming sticks or the Roku streaming service. I know ROKU is very data collection happy. Of the 43K DNS lookups on my network in the last 24 hours. 12K DNS lookups were blocked by ad guard at the network layers, Of the 12K dns lookups blocked close to 50% of them was from my Roku TV's trying to send information back to the mothership. Last think I want is my TV generating more add slop from AI.