Roku TVs are now displaying pop-up advertisements over commercials on live TV. Whether you’re watching cable TV or free OTA channels via an antenna, you’ll see an occasional Roku advertisement above a commercial. Here’s how to disable them.
These ads were first spotted by Cord Cutters News. An advertisement promoting “Ghost Town” on the Roku Channel, a program sponsored by GEICO, appeared over a GEICO commercial while watching live TV. The ads appear to be part of the Roku OS 9.2 update.
The good news is that these only appear during commercial breaks. If an advertiser has partnered with Roku, that advertiser can display an interactive pop-up advertisement over the normal commercial. These ads will only appear when commercials are already playing on your TV.
If you don’t want to see these advertisements, you can disable them. To do so, head to Settings > Privacy > Smart TV Experience and disable the “Use info from TV inputs” feature on your Roku TV.
This will also disable suggestions like “More Ways to Watch,” which uses Automated Content Recognition (ACR) to analyze what you’re watching and recommend additional episodes of the show on streaming services as well as similar shows and movies you may be interested in watching.
These advertisements are only available on Roku TVs at the moment. If you have a TCL Roku TV or a Roku TV made by another manufacturer, this affects you.
If you just have a standard Roku stick or streaming box, you won’t see these ads or the option to disable the “Use info from TV inputs” feature.
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