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Wnymama
Reel Rookie

Who makes the horrible roku channel ads?!?!

I have never seen so many HORRIBLE, unwatchable, low-budget ads...

Does Roku have high school interns making these ads? And is there any chance they will EVER not be the same 6 ads?

The same ones play over and over and over.... and have NOTHING to do with my favorite channels (Great British Baking Show, home and garden, PBS, cooking, etc.): Screambox, Swerve Combat, True Crime, Hi-Yah!, FGTeeV, and Haunt TV? Awful. Also, I don't think ads that feature Terrifier movies are appropriate for G-rated channels.

Or how about Crunchyroll, Yugi-Oh!, etc? Why are there so many anime commercials?!

No thank you.

How about enticing viewers with ads similar to what they are enjoying? When you shop for things online, there are always suggestions for similar items, not entirely opposite ones, right? Can we please fix this?!?! I get that I have to watch the same junk ads over ad nauseum, but can we please do better than this garbage?

I would truly appreciate it, and I am sure I am not alone in this plea. Thank you to whoever can lend their voice or fix this.

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4 REPLIES 4
JWS9518
Binge Watcher

Re: WHO MAKES THE HORRIBLE ROKU CHANNEL ADS?!?!

I doubt that Roku makes the ads themselves and probably just sell the ad space, unless they are ads for their own products or channels.  Some of that is also based on the apps themselves and the ad space the owners of those channels (third party and not Roku) sell. These days, it is also possible they are AI generated as well.

You can limit some of the types of ads, such as the horror stuff you mentioned.

  1. Press Home on your Roku remote 
     
  2. Select Settings 
     
  3. Select Privacy 
     
  4. Select Advertising 
     
  5. Select Sensitive ad content 
     
  6. Select one or more sensitive ad categories 
     
  7. Press OK 
0 Kudos
JanuaryRainfall
Reel Rookie

Re: Who makes the horrible roku channel ads?!?!

You're definitely not alone in this, but the company clearly doesn't care -- you can find complaint threads for some of these ads all over the internet, going back YEARS. I despise most Roku commercials, but The Weird Al movie, Fear Factor, and FGTeev "screaming" ads are my personal least favorites. It's almost like these adverts were made to be as intentionally annoying and/or disturbing as possible. All we can really do is keep complaining and vote with our wallets. Roku obviously does not respect their customers, so why should we give them any more of our money in a world where every single aspect of our lives is monetized to comical extremes?

0 Kudos
Strega2
Roku Guru

Re: Who makes the horrible roku channel ads?!?!

I wouldn't expect complaints about ads to have any effect if the complainers keep watching. (Wikipedia says TRC has 120 million viewers.) On the other hand, if you watch some other app, the effect for you is immediate, and if people agree and do the same, then they'll actually notice that. Fortunately there are many other apps on Roku. When I got my Roku around 2016, I watched one 30 minute show on TRC and decided that app wasn't for me. However, given that The Roku Channel continues to exist, I would say that the commercials must not be a real issue for many people. To each his own.

Banned but back. Because why not?
0 Kudos
JWS9518
Binge Watcher

Re: Who makes the horrible roku channel ads?!?!

And you are doing exactly what they want you to do, you are talking about them.  Even if it is a negative response, they are getting a response, which is what the marketers/ad companies want from ads in general.  That talk gets other people's attention and that may result in a sale for them.  Unfortunately, it is the nature of streaming and advertising in general today.  Some ads are designed that way, to be annoying, because it gets attention.  With the scattered field of numerous streaming channels and advertisers out there, the ad money is spread out everywhere, so in essence, if they can make an ad cheaply and gets people's attention, even if the ad is bad or annoying, it has done its purpose.  

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