Community discussions

[andyross]

You should be able to go into Settings/Home screen and set Recommendation Rows to Hide. For the right side ad, you can highlight it, then try hitting the asterisk key. Unless it is a special sponsored ad, you should have the option to hide it. It will be replaced with another.

[m4p]

Thanks for the tip about the wallpaper.  Unfortunately, it did not work.  It's bad enough we have the big ad on the right on the home screen, but now we also have ads on the left side of the home screen.  At least some of the stuff we could hide, but not this new ad.  So disgusted with Roku right now.  

[atc98092]

If you want a home screen without ads,  the Apple TV is your only choice. In addition to Roku, every Android/Google TV device has similar ads.

[m4p]

Besides 3 Rokus, I also have a Firestick with no ads and I will be using it more than the Roku, and won't be recommending the Roku anymore.  Roku should at least give us the option to turn off the ad box on the lower left side on the Home screen, since we can't control the one on the right.  It's obnoxious and very irritating.

[atc98092]

I have a Fire TV Cube. The entire user interface is an Amazon ad. You may not think of it that way, but that's what it is. 

[m4p]

That's too bad.  My Firestick doesn't have ads on the home screen.  I use a different launcher on it that doesn't have ads on the home screen.

[atc98092]

It's your launcher that is hiding the ads. They're still there, as they are on every Fire TV device. And every device that uses the Google TV/Android TV operating system (unless someone uses an alternate launcher, which is beyond many users' technical abilities to configure).

[Emissary35]

Roku will never give us the option to turn off the ads that is just wishful thinking. In fact I expect it to get worse as time goes on. All they see is ka-ching! More ad-revenue! It's all about the money for them, not the user experience.

[andyross]

I believe Amazon already disabled the ability to auto-start alternative launchers. They are working on their own OS that will be as locked down as Roku.

[lcd1701]

Will OS 13 finally put to bed the same obnoxious commercials that have been plastered on most Roku Live TV channels for the past 6 months for content that hasn't been new for at least that long or longer? It's ridiculous. Particularly that the commercials are louder than the actual program content like old school broadcast TV!

Additionally, the Rich Eisen Show refuses to update the on demand channel after May 22nd both on my TV and the Roku app!