One of the reasons why streaming services and platforms such as Roku earn money is through advertisements. Just like the old-fashioned TV services where you see advertisements in between shows, online services also play ads as a way to earn more money other than the subscriptions.
Roku is one of the popular streaming devices these days. But, these devices have advertising and tracking. It may seem annoying if you are interrupted by advertisements when watching a show or when on your homescreen, especially if you have seen the ads several times.
How to Disable Ads on Your Roku TV
Unfortunately, if you want to disable or block the ads on your Roku or Roku TV home screen, it may not be possible for you. Roku devices have built-in advertisements and tracking that runs every time you are connected to the Internet. It automatically downloads ads and runs them on the shows. The only good thing about it is that it does not take up a lot of your bandwidth.
Alternative to Blocking Ads on Roku
While you may not have the option to disable the ads on your Roku or Roku TV, you can disable some of its features.
Enable Limit Ad Tracking
Roku ads appear based on its tracking of your preferences. If you feel intimidated by this setup, you can limit the ad tracking, so only generic ads appear on your screen. It means that the ads are less obvious to what you are searching for or watching on your Roku device.
- To enable Limit Ad Tracking, go to your Settings.
- Select Privacy and click Advertising.
- Choose the Limit Ad Tracking option.
Disable Pop-up Ads
What’s annoying than watching an advertisement? Another advertisement on top of it. That is sometimes the case in Roku ads. Pop-up ads appear as if you cannot get enough of one marketing message. If you are annoyed by it, you can always disable the ads.
- Go to the Settings.
- Select Privacy.
- Click Smart TV Experience.
- Uncheck the Use info from TV inputs to disable pop-up ads.
These methods may not be the best solutions to stop you from watching the ads on your Roku devices but they can ease up your burden. For other people, they choose to transfer to another streaming service players just to get rid of the ads.
Here are the top streaming players available for you right now!
- Amazon Fire TV (View at Amazon | View at Bed Bath and Beyond | View at Best Buy)
- Amazon Fire Stick (View at Amazon | View at Bed Bath and Beyond | View at Best Buy)
- Amazon Fire TV Cube (View at Amazon | View at Bed Bath and Beyond | View at Best Buy)
- Chromecast with Google TV (View at Amazon | View at Walmart | View at Best Buy)
- Nvidia Shield TV (View at Amazon | View at Walmart | View at Best Buy)
- Apple TV 4K (View at Amazon | View at Walmart | View at Best Buy)
- TiVo Stream 4K (View at Amazon | View at Walmart)
- Xfinity Flex (View from Website)
Are you willing to tolerate the ads on your Roku and Roku TV? Or, are the ads a huge reason to transfer to another streaming device? Let us know in the comments below.
I would be willing to pay for it if it had an ad free option like hulu.
I would pay for a plus option without ads or commercials
I would pay for a plus option to get rid of ads. I hate interruptions and ads.
I don’t expect to pay $100 for the device and then have to tolerate their home screen ads. I’ll be throwing out the Roku and switching to something I control.
No ads options is a better business decisions. Add an extra fee for this option. Happy customer means successful network!
I can’t watch ads at all anymore so do not watch any streaming service that have them.
Need to be ad free I hate interuptions
The ads are ridiculous. They come up every 7-8 minutes with 2-5 commercials each time. During a 60 minute show which means you can view an easy average of approx. 20 commercials an hour! That’s absolutely too much. I won’t watch Roku anymore. It’s a huge waste of time and ruins the show you are watching.
I agree….I’m getting rid of 2 roku’s.FED UP with the B.S.
15 to 20 ads in an episode which is 20 minutes this is uncall for and a rip off will dispose of this stupid roku tv.
roku breaks into tv shows which i hate. I will NEVER BUY A ROKU TV AGAIN!!!
I would by willing to pay for ad free like Hulu
What aggravates me is that there is one TV show they have that is not available anywhere else. So I’m stuck watching and simply muting and doing something else during the ads. If I see any ads at all I make a note to never purchase any of their products and if I see a survey for those sellers I make sure I tell them this is why I won’t purchase their products. Let them know the add are hurting their business.
My husband has been watching a streaming NFL game on Roku and I’ve heard the same two ads TWENTY-SIX times this afternoon, so far. There are quite a few things we’d be willing to do to stop this.
The commercials are bad enough but they are placed in all the wrong places. Why can’t the placed where the original show made room for them
The reason I get streaming services is to avoid adds and commercials. If the roku channel and some of the other free streaming services had an option to even purchase a ad free plan for just a little cheaper than others, they’d make more money. I was stuck between Peacock and the roku channel until I found out Peacock had a ad free plan for 9.99 so I definitely went to Peacock. The Roku channel for 5.99 without ads would be perfect
I will gladly pay for no ads!
A movie showed 7 commercials at one time. Come on, really! I know nothing is free but the dump of commercials is ridiculous.
There is supposed to be a browser you can download to your Roku TV. I may try it, see if it offers any ad blocking. There are so many ads it’s just crazy, I have to turn the TV off on the Roku and youtube channels. Hint: Look for free movies and such on the web, and see if mirroring it to your Roku TV gets rid of the ads. I never see them on my laptop when on youtube using my Brave browser.
Funny how people forget OTA tv had ads and we adjusted.