Roku slammed over automatic ads playing at startup: ‘Considering jumping ship now’
This TV wasn’t too smart.
Nowadays with so many accessible streaming services, having to sit through a few ads while watching something is normal. Yet, many frustrated Roku OS users were recently forced to watch ads before they even opened the main menu — and they were livid.
Roku customers ran to Reddit to share their frustrations earlier this week when their patience was tested by a series of redundant ads automatically playing upon opening the operating system.
In a r/Roku subreddit, one user wrote, “Hello! I just turned on my Roku and got an unskippable ad for a movie, before I got to the regular Roku home screen. Has anyone else experienced this?”
This clearly wasn’t a glitch — because many other people took to the thread to complain.
“I also had that happen today. If it keeps up my Roku devices will be in the trash,” one person wrote.
“Just experienced the same thing. Considering my options for jumping ship now,” another person shared.
“Yes this started last night for me. Pretty disappointing and intrusive. I can’t imagine it’s enough to make me leave Roku, since I already have three sticks and two Roku TVs, but I won’t be buying any future Roku devices,” a comment read.
It seems like Roku was consistent with the ads they were force-feeding people — this time around it was an ad for last year’s “Moana 2” movie.
“Just had it happen to me for Moana. That’s absolute garbage. If they make me watch an ad to get to my apps to watch tv I’m out,” an angry user said.
“Yup. Moana 2 for me. I’ve been a huge Roku advocate but this will end that. I may still use them, but I’m done telling everyone in my life to buy one,” read another frustrated comment.
“Moana ad for me just now when I turned on the tv!” wrote another commenter.
The Post reached out to Roku for a comment.
In a statement, a Roku representative confirmed that the annoying ads were something new the brand was testing out — based on the response from people, hopefully they think again.
“Our recent test is just the latest example, as we explore new ways to showcase brands and programming while still providing a delightful and simple user experience,” the tech company said.
This isn’t the first time customers were furious with Roku. In 2024, the brand experienced two cyberattacks that impacted over 500,000 accounts. Thankfully, according to the company the hackers did not gain access to any sensitive information.
