While Roku already offers advertisements on its platform, it also seems to investigate the possibility of displaying advertisements to you when you use non-Roku devices linked to its televisions. According to a recent patent application that Lowpass was able to locate, the business wants to create a system or a technique “for ad insertion by a display device coupled to a media device via a high-definition media interface (HDMI) connection.” This implies that the business might still show you adverts if you linked another streaming device or consoles, such as an Apple TV, a Chromecast, or a PlayStation, to a Roku TV via HDMI.
Roku’s Innovative Advertising Methods: Interrupting Paused Content with Targeted Ads
Specifically, Roku wants to broadcast advertisements while pausing everything you’re watching or listening to on the connected third-party device. The patent detailed various techniques for determining whether the television program or game is paused. These techniques included obtaining a silent audio signal from the HDMI connection, receiving a pause signal from the remote control, identifying a pause icon, analyzing multiple video frames to ascertain that the image on the screen hasn’t changed in a while, and looking at multiple video frames.
To identify when a TV is inactive, Roku suggests keeping an eye on things like the audio coming from the device and grabbing frames from the video stream to indicate that the content has been paused.
This is only one of the several approaches Roku is attempting to incorporate advertisements in addition to its customary Roku Channel approach. The business revealed last year that it had teamed with Best Buy to offer its low-cost smart TVs only at the retail chain. Additionally, the TVs would show customers adverts based on their past purchases from Best Buy.
Roku’s Advertising Strategy: Enhancing Revenue through Targeted Ads
Assuming you’re walking away or doing anything else in the interim, the advertisements shouldn’t significantly influence your watching or playing experience if everything goes according to plan. Roku is at least trying to make sure that it’s showing you appropriate advertisements, even if you presumably would like those experiences to be completely ad-free. It could recognize objects on screen by using automated content recognition (ACR) technology, which analyzes frozen video or audio frames. Alternatively, it could use metadata analysis to display advertisements relevant to the content you’re watching or listening to. Depending on what other device is connected to your TV, it can also show you advertisements.
As noted by Lowpass, the corporation could have come up with the concept because hardware sales usually don’t bring in a lot of money for manufacturers. Roku lost $44 million in the 2023 fiscal year as a result of smart TV sales. Similar to this, Samsung’s division for digital appliances and visual displays reported operational losses of $37.5 million for the fourth quarter of the previous year. Roku, meanwhile, made $1.6 billion in profit from its services and advertisements. If the thought of having to watch ads while your show or game is paused doesn’t deter you from purchasing Roku TV, then this notion may potentially increase revenue. Right now, though, this is only a patent, and Roku may decide to drop it altogether and never use it.
