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BurntSienna
Reel Rookie

Ads on paid subscription channels and missing episodes/shows

I currently have paid subscriptions to BritBox and AcornTV through Roku channel. 

For starters I’m getting ads at the start of an episode on both channels. These are both ad-free paid subscriptions. There should be zero ads! But instead every other episode I’m seeing ads for **bleep** like Pandora, eHarmony, credit karma, etc. I previously subscribed to both these channels directly through their own apps or through Amazon and never had a single ad.

 

So what’s going on? Is Roku doing a/b testing on some accounts and giving us inferior “lite” version of the channels? With ads no less! 

the second issue is that available titles through Roku are different from what’s available directly on BritBox or AcornTV. For example there’s a show called “Crime”, it has 6 episodes that are all available on BritBox. But Roku BritBox only has 4 episodes. Why? They had a similar issue with “Shetland” where the final episode was missing but was eventually added last week (even though it was available on non Roku platforms for weeks). 

 

I contacted support previously who promised a follow up but of course never bothered to contact me again. Why should I pay money to Roku for a channel with ads and missing episodes if I can just sub directly or through Amazon or Apple TV with no ads and access to the full catalogue?

 

5 REPLIES 5
renojim
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Ads on paid subscription channels and missing episodes/shows

Your last paragraph is the relevant portion of your post.  It's almost always better to subscribe directly with the provider and not some third party like Roku.  Third party subscriptions and direct subscriptions are two different things and often have different content and features.

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BurntSienna
Reel Rookie

Re: Ads on paid subscription channels and missing episodes/shows


@renojim wrote:

Your last paragraph is the relevant portion of your post.  It's almost always better to subscribe directly with the provider and not some third party like Roku.  Third party subscriptions and direct subscriptions are two different things and often have different content and features.


I completely agree with you. I only signed up because of the $0.99 promotion on Black Friday.

The thing is that I had subs through Roku channel before but never had ads until now. I was just hoping to see if it’s happening to anyone else or is my account glitched somehow? I certainly won’t renew the subscription once the promo expires.

Willc
Newbie

Re: Ads on paid subscription channels and missing episodes/shows

Have same issue with the Crime series on Britbox, waiting…..for ….the ….two….last ….episodes to drop. Nice service there Roku. Will be changing to direct subscription to Britbox.

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BurntSienna
Reel Rookie

Re: Ads on paid subscription channels and missing episodes/shows


@Willc wrote:

Have same issue with the Crime series on Britbox, waiting…..for ….the ….two….last ….episodes to drop. Nice service there Roku. Will be changing to direct subscription to Britbox.


They finally added those last 2 episodes! 

Let’s see: BritBox direct subscribers got all episodes on Nov 18 but Roku subscribers had to wait nearly 2 months. Utterly ridiculous! 

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greg30808
Newbie

Re: Ads on paid subscription channels and missing episodes/shows

I'm having the same problem with ads on Britbox on Roku.  I notice that Roku didn't respond to this problem.  Roku will loose me as a customer if I see any more ads.

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