ROCK THE BOAT
Roku viewers rage as bosses reveal plot to roll out ‘intrusive’ change to popular TV gadget
Scroll to the bottom for a full list of Roku voice commands to use on your remote
ROKU customers - like many smart TV viewers - have been fuming at the rising number of adverts in recent years.
Now, Roku's director of international ad sales, Mike Shaw, has said he wants to introduce "shoppable" ads that are similar to the ones you see on social media platforms like Facebook.
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They essentially allow viewers to buy things directly from the ads they see on their TV.
However, viewers have dubbed them "intrusive" and 'insulting'.
Shaw reckons its a golden opportunity for advertisers.
He envisions a future where TV viewers will be able to order a takeaway while they're enjoying a movie, from say, a Deliveroo or Dominos advert.
"Consumers can click and buy products while enjoying an evening show, or order food and snacks when watching a sports game," Shaw wrote in business-facing outlet Retail Tech Innovation Hub.
"It’s all part of a complementary, branched out buyer’s journey."
The adverts won't just be from household name retail giants, but smaller businesses too.
Shaw described the advert-style as "reducing the sales funnel down to just one click".
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But it's clear from comments made on social media that Roku customers - and others using similar TV gadgets - are sick of the constant increase in adverts.
"Roku will show video ads in their menus before you open a streaming service app," one longtime customer complained on X.
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"First it was ads in the menus. Then billboards blocking out the scenery in screen saver scenes. Then it was ads *in* those scenes.
"I've used a Roku box for about a decade. It's slowly gotten more intrusive.
"They filed a patent last year on ways to show ads over other devices plugged into their TVs, like your game system or laptop.
"Just no. It's a device. It's hardware. I didn't buy it to advertise to me."
Another onlooker wrote on Reddit that they were "insulted" by the increase of advertising on Roku devices.
They joked: "Why not just let me buy a robotic arm for my TV for only $99.99 that swipes my credit card, and steals my money when I go to the loo?
"And a $19.99 monthly subscription that prevents the built-in flamethrower from torching my house."
Roku voice commands – the official list
Here are some voice commands to try with your Roku mobile app, as revealed by the TV giant itself...
- Find a specific movie or show
“Harry Potter"
"find Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
“show me episodes of Silicon Valley” - Search for your favorite actors or directors
“Halle Berry”
“search for comedy movies with Will Farrell”
"find all Martin Scorsese films" - Browse popular genres
“show me comedies”
“find thriller movies” - Find content in a genre on a channel
“show documentary films on Sky Store”
- Launch a streaming channel
“go to YouTube”
“launch Prime Video”
"BBC iPlayer"
- Playback commands
"fast forward"
"rewind"
"pause"
"stop"
"resume"
"continue"
"skip"
"next"
"replay" - Closed captioning commands
“turn on closed captioning”
“hide the captions”
"show captions during replay"
"turn on captions during mute"
"what's my captions setting?"
- Move forward a specific amount of time
“forward 15 minutes”
“skip 5 minutes”
“fast forward 3 minutes”
“go forward 10 minutes” - Move backward (or rewind) a specific amount of time
“go back half an hour”
“rewind 30 minutes” - Restart video from beginning
"start over"
- Search for content
"play Taylor Swift"
"play Daft Punk on Spotify"
"play S-Town on TuneIn" - Interact with your streaming service
"thumbs up/down"
"like/dislike"
"what song is this?"
- Switch devices
“switch the input to HDMI 3”
“switch to antenna TV”
"switch to Blu-ray player" - Change over-the-air broadcast channels
“channel up”
"channel down"
“tune to NBC”
“find channel 7.1"
"previous channel" - Launch or hide Live TV Channel Guide
“open live tv guide”
“open channel guide
"hide channel guide" - Adjust volume levels
"turn the volume up"
"volume down"
"mute"
"set volume to 50%"
"set volume to 5"