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.
Mutually assured destruction if they were able to do this, because every other company that has a device that interfaces with HDMI would immediately implement their own ad-hijacking system that would fight for the same screen space during those “breaks”.
Not to mention that if Roku saw some unknown time to monetize the screen, surely the host device they’re trying to draw over would’ve done it by now.
Maybe they could plaster ads over their screensaver to ruin their own experience before trying to do it to someone else.
They’re already doing what you mentioned in your last post. The screen saver scrolls and has a cityscape with billboards. Those billboards have ads on them.