- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13903698
Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing.
This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.
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I dread the day when I can no longer buy a dumb TV or monitor. It’s coming way too soon.You’ll still be able to buy them but you’ll have to get it from like Harbin Industrial Electronic Co., Ltd. who happens to be the only manufacturer of it in the entire world, and the minimum order size is 20.
even the commercial monitors are coming with bloat.
you basically have to get the really expensive ones that you can swap the main boards out for whatever.
Was also struggling with this shit recently. I found out about the concept of “digital signage” which is like, the kind of screen that’s used for a restaurant menu or an airport display. It’s certainly a dumb display, so no smart tv crap. But the quality is all low, ain’t exactly meant for good sharp picture. I ended up just getting a stupid ‘smart tv’ and have not hooked it up to the internet ever. It gets a display feed from my computer and that’s it.
When my dumb tv dies I don’t think I’ll bother replacing it if I can’t find another non-smart tv. I barely use it anyway so I don’t think it’d be that big a problem. If monitors are all smart bullshit now then that’s a different problem
I dread the day when TVs refuse to operate without a network connection. As it is now, even most smart TVs can be made dumb by never connecting them to WiFi etc., but I wonder how long that’s going to last.
This is an interesting tidbit.
However, the fact that Roku even explored this points to a major underlying issue: These days, TV makers hardly make any money with their physical products. Roku’s FY 2023 earnings report shows that the company lost $44 million on the sale of smart TVs, streaming players and other devices in 2023. What brings in the bacon are ads and services; Roku generated a gross profit of nearly $1.6 billion with this business segment.
The only purpose of the TV is to show you ads indefinitely. Even when the sale, which is a loss leader, is recouped by ads you’d think, “Hmm. Maybe that’s enough of that.” But no, for these companies and their insatiable greed it will never be enough.
What a wonderful system we live under, where the thing that people actually want somehow also isn’t worth producing, and the mind-stabbing ads that everybody fucking hates have to be injected into every possible nook in order for production to stay alive. Truly the only possible functional economy.
Pro sports in the US are really doing everything they can to cram ads in. They’ve maxed out on commercial breaks so they’re going in another direction: playing surfaces and uniforms are getting more ads on them. If you want to watch the game, you have to see the ads. If you don’t watch sports much I’d encourage you to just watch a game for a few minutes (the NHL especially) and see how bad it’s gotten.
Prior to going to an NFL game because my mom won tickets while renting a vhs back in the day, I’d never watched a football game on TV.
My cousin offered to take me to the game so we went. I was blown away that after every couple minutes the players just kinda stood around on the field while TV commercials were run. I couldn’t believe that was how the game went. I always assumed they filmed the whole thing and then broke it up for commercials when it aired on TV. I had no idea it was live and that’s just how it was. Even now it blows my mind when I think back to that.
I can appreciate NFL athletes wanting to just stand around and catch their breath, because of the intensity of the sport.
we ran a hell of a lot more than that in middle school and high school sports without any breaks… these guys are getting millions upon millions of dollars to basically stand around for several minutes after a couple of plays
Oh I know… I remember the last time I watched a pro football game with my dad, I told him I couldn’t believe there was more ad than game.
It’s so aggressive. When I was young I could watch the players on the court. Now they have the tracking technology (which… as someone into 3d graphics programming I have to admit, that kind of technology is cool) to project ads into the space dynamically. So the court just has more and more virtual real estate sold off for viewers at home. I’m sure it’s all perfectly focus and user tested to ensure the exact right balance between unwatchable garbage and, “Ok, I can notice it and maybe I don’t like it but I can barely ignore it.”
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
They keep adding more and more shit to the main screen too. I can’t even turn off all the bullshit fake channels that are really just ads now. I used to have a muscle-memory pattern of hitting 3 buttons to turn my tv off when we finish watching a show or movie, and now half the time it opens some goddamned ad and the other half of the time it turns the tv off.
They force me to look at the damned screen to see what i’m doing and then i see these little shitty channels of whatever garbage they’re trying to hawk now.
I wanna explore the homes of these executives in minecraft after minecrafting them
China pls sabotage TSMC so we can stem the flow of chips into every goddamn thing I can buy. I don’t want an ad burned onto my morning toast once dumb toasters aren’t sold here anymore.
I think I’ve touched too much grass to understand this.
Lathe of heaven is from a movie where the guy with the hat can change reality with his thoughts.
Also was just envisioning ░M░Y░P░U░S░S░Y░I░N░B░I░O░ on a piece of toast.
plz no.
I don’t want an ad burned onto my morning toast once dumb toasters aren’t sold here anymore.
Stay away from the Lathe of Heaven.
Fuck I better not have that power.
Why do they keep trying to make the drink the can meme a thing? Plz no.
Rate of profit really declining
It has a tendency to do that.
Roku TVs could one day show ads as soon as you pause playing a game on a connected Xbox, or stop a stream on an Apple TV.
People are gonna be so pissed at the false positives on this, lmao. What an awful idea. I mean they’ll hate the function generally but this is 100% not going to work as intended and be even worse.
I imagine as soon as someone has to see an ad in the middle of their Call of duty match or whatever, they’d be either returning that tv or at least never buying anything from roku again. The brand would burn itself down, making people not want their tvs, which in turn makes them lose money by having less people using them and seeing their ads
Lmao I’m imagining a slur-cursing kid getting an ad in the middle of their rant and hurling a controller at the tv in a fit of anger
which means they’ll increase the amount of ads they show to the rest of the suckers who continue to keep their roku/tv
end result being anyone who keeps using roku anything just sees ads 24/7
I imagine as soon as someone has to see an ad in the middle of their Call of duty match or whatever, they’d be either returning that tv or at least never buying anything from roku again.
They’ll either SWAT Roku executives or go on a mass shooting rampage at a local Arby’s
I wonder when it’s going to become illegal to jailbreak (remove ads) from your TV, fridge, toaster, toothbrush, etc…In the US, it already would be under the DMCA.
“An off switch?” “She’ll get years for that. Off switches are illegal.”
that’s so awesome i was so tired of things like games and movies getting in the way of my viewing experience of ads for shitter paper.
why hasn’t the world moved to an open standard yet? seems absurd that we allow a bunch of bytes be controlled based on the cable you have
This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.
So they would be showing ads to no one? They’ll just be sending data to a TV that’s not on? And this would produce a profit?
cursed. very cursed.
I already refuse to shop at Best Buy because their ads on so many websites are invasive.
No ad buyer who wants people to like their product will go for this.
So it will just be the worst garbage.
mine literally already does this. I turned on my TV to play FF7 Rebirth the other day. It’s a Hisense (which is a Roku TV). Tell me why when I turned the TV on and it popped up on the PS5 HDMI connection (PS5 was still in rest mode so it was just the ‘no connection found’ screen) it pops up with a little ad telling me to watch FF7 Advent Children on Prime Video. Excuse me??
Roku’s value was that it was a low effort way to use streaming apps on a TV, they don’t even have any network effect advantages. 90% of TVs already come with all the roku functionality built in. Absolute business suicide.
First the basilisk and now this?!
