Channel Issues & Questions

[Drummernaut]

I just bought a Stick+ yesterday. While trying to watch Science Go channel, one of the ads/commercials crashes(freezes, does not complete) then all the ads start again at 1 of # and plays until it come back to the bad ad, crashes restarts. If I leave it like this it will play in an endless loop forever. I all cases I have had to restart the show but if one of the bad ads come up again then I am stuck in a loop again. I was not able to finish last night show or today show because of this. I have talk to Roku chat about this and they say the problem is with Discovery. While the ad may be bad this is still Roku's ad platform that is repeating. It seems to me that there should be some kind of flag on Roku ad software platform that would flag this problem and keep an endless loop from happening. I have sent a contact email to discovery to remove or fix the ads in question but I think the bigger problem is on Roku's side since this can happen with other channels. Currently Roku's tech support was no help.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I would like to see the rest of the shows but because of the ad problem I am not able to.

[atc98092]

I don't believe it's a Roku ad you see. Any ad within a particular channel is coming from the channel provider, not Roku. Unfortunately, the chat was correct that it is an issue with the content provider, not Roku.

[Drummernaut]

Atc98092

I realize that the ads do not come from roku. The channels and 3rd parties are utilizing roku's ad platform (https://www.roku.com/roku-advertising). All of the channels I have used so far have use the same ad platform for the prerecorded content(not live). I will admit that the channels could be using a 3rd party platform but the site I listed above tells me it is roku's because it integrates well with the play, pause fast forward when trying to skip or find ads and they are all lthe same from channel to channel.(so far)

The ads are locally targeted to the audience. It seems to me that when an ad crashes on this platform, the platform resets to the beginning and tries to replay all the ads from the start until it gets to the bad ad. It seems to me that the platform should not get stuck like this at all.

[RokuShawnS]

Try going into Settings > Privacy > Advertising and turn it off.

Do you experience the same behavior?

I don't think it should have any impact either way, but it would be useful to check.

Also, for reference, let us know the following information:

• Model #


• Serial #


• Firmware version and build #


• Channels involved with this issue

[Drummernaut]

Rokushaws
Just to be straight my selections were "Reset advertising identifier" and "Limit ad tracking". First I reset the advertising identifier. This gave me a new set of ads, some were the same some were different but the offending ad did not come up so I was able to continue to the next content section. But, the next set of ads included the offending ad and the loop started again. Next I unchecked the limit ad tracking which again gave me a new set of ads absent the offending ad and again I was able to continue to the next content section. The next set of ads did include the offending ad but this time the ad froze for a couple of seconds as usual then unexpectedly finished and I was able to watch the end of the content last night! Yea!!!

I have only watched 4 channels with prerecorded content: espn, diy, hgtv, and science go. The problem happened on science go although some of the same ads were on all the other channels. The offending ads(an infinity car ad and another unidentified ad) only came up on science go however I believe this to be chance and may happen more as I watch more content, just bought a couple of days ago.

Roku Streaming Stick+
YH0006711299
Ver. 8.0.1 Build 4090
Science Go

[Drummernaut]

This problem is still happening and now it is on other channels. If there is no answer for this then please let me know and I will return the stick. I have uploaded a video I made days ago of what is happening. I am not able to finish watching content. This time the offending ad is a nissan leaf ad. www.drummernaut.com/roku

[Streams]

This happens due to the channel, not the Roku.  I remember it happening to me in the past with Discovery owned channels (like the ones you are watching) and it has happened to me this past week while watching Deadliest Catch.  I am also having other issues with episodes not showing up in the menu even though they are definitely available.  This is Discovery's fault for poor programing of the channel app, not Roku.

[renojim]

"Streams" wrote:
This happens due to the channel, not the Roku.

Not true.  Most, if not all, ad rendering relies on the Roku Ad Framework.  The code is written and maintained by Roku and hidden from developers.

-JT

[Streams]

"renojim" wrote:

"Streams" wrote:
This happens due to the channel, not the Roku.

Not true.  Most, if not all, ad rendering relies on the Roku Ad Framework.  The code is written and maintained by Roku and hidden from developers.

-JT

Sorry to burst your bubble, but only Discovery owned channels use this way of showing ads and only Discovery owned channels constantly have this issue of rebooting the ads in an endless loop.  It is the fault of the channel, not the Roku.

[Drummernaut]

"Streams" wrote:

"renojim" wrote:

"Streams" wrote:
This happens due to the channel, not the Roku.

Not true.  Most, if not all, ad rendering relies on the Roku Ad Framework.  The code is written and maintained by Roku and hidden from developers.

-JT

Sorry to burst your bubble, but only Discovery owned channels use this way of showing ads and only Discovery owned channels constantly have this issue of rebooting the ads in an endless loop.  It is the fault of the channel, not the Roku.

There are other channels besides the Discovery channels that use this way of showing ads. Some use a combination of platforms to deliver ads. I have been checking several different channels that are using the Roku platform as renojim and I have shown. The only difference is the two ads that have crashed have not shown up on the other channels but many other ads are the same. I suspect that if they came up on the other channels the same thing would happen.

To me there are a couple of problems. One, the channels using the plarform(mainly Discovery at this point) are not vetting the material that is being loaded on the platform. Two, the way the Roku platform reacts to a crashing ad. I have sent the video off to Discovery. Hopfully they will pull these ads but I would urge Roku to look at how their ad platform reacts to problem ads.