Roku informed Cord Cutters News that these advertisements could be skipped. According to earlier reader and Reddit accounts, they couldn’t be skipped.
According to Roku, these advertisements have a close button that allows you to instantly end the ad as soon as it begins. The original tale is as follows:
Roku started experimenting with a daring new advertising tactic over the weekend, which has angered some customers. Video ads that play before the home page even loaded are a new layer of advertising that owners of Roku-powered smart TVs and streaming sticks are already used to seeing on the Roku OS home screen. This occurs when users launch their streaming players or Roku TVs in fullscreen mode and are unable to pause plays before choosing an app. The future of the user experience on one of the most well-known streaming services in the United States has been called into doubt by this experimental move, which has sparked a wave of online complaints.
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When word leaked out earlier this week about these pre-home screen advertisements, irate Roku users took to forums and social media to express their displeasure. On March 16, 2025, a Reddit member wrote, “I just turned on my Roku and got an ad for a movie, before I got to the regular Roku home screen,” which Ars Technica was the first to notice. The article immediately became popular, and many users commented to share similar experiences. Many of them blamed the incident on an advertisement for Disney’s upcoming movie Moana 2. This modification appears to be restricted to a small test group, so not all Roku owners are now affected.
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“Roku offers our 90M and expanding TV streaming households the best value and experience,” a Roku representative told Cord Cutters News in a statement. Continuous testing and innovation in design, navigation, content, and our excellent advertising goods have been and will continue to be necessary for this. Our most recent test is only the most recent illustration of our efforts to find innovative methods to present programming and brands while maintaining an enjoyable and easy-to-use user experience.
Roku has always included advertising as a primary source of income for its platform, which is expected to power 90 million households in the United States by the beginning of 2025. When CEO Anthony Wood revealed intentions to convert static ads into video forms during a 2024 earnings call, he stated that the Roku OS home screen currently had video ads in noticeable locations like the “Marquee” position. This most recent test, however, goes one step further by requiring users to view a commercial before they can access the interface. This step is similar to the autoplay advertisements found on certain free streaming services, but it feels strange given the operating system of a device.
Fire TVs have featured fullscreen video advertisements when they turn on for a while, so Roku is not the first company to do so.
Roku has previously been criticized for its excessive use of advertisements. Some customers were already annoyed by the company’s 2024 decision to replace static banners with video ads on the home screen, which they believed cluttered an otherwise straightforward layout. However, Roku has been driven to “innovate” in this area by its reliance on advertising revenue, which in Q1 2024 alone amounted to $755 million from its platform business, a 19% rise from the previous year. Wood has said that the home screen reaches about 120 million users per day, offering a profitable possibility for ads. The company’s leadership has been outspoken about monetizing the screen.
Meanwhile, Roku users are forced to consider their options. Some have threatened to go to more expensive options like Apple TV, which claims to have an ad-free interface. As the test progresses, Roku must strike a careful balance between preserving its ad-supported business model and not upsetting the millions of users who depended on it for a convenient streaming experience.
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