Roku OS home screen is getting video ads for the first time

Enlarge (credit: Roku)

Roku CEO Anthony Wood disclosed plans to introduce video ads to the Roku OS home screen. The news highlights Roku’s growing focus on advertising and an alarming trend in the streaming industry that sees ads increasingly forced on viewers.

As spotted by The Streamable, during Roku’s Q1 2024 earnings call last week, Wood, also the company’s founder and chairman, boasted about the Roku OS home screen showing users ads “before they select an app,” avoiding the possibility that they don’t see any ads during their TV-viewing session. (The user might only use Roku to access a video streaming app for which they have an ad-free subscription.)

Wood also noted future plans to make the Roku home screen even more ad-laden: