Roku has become an integral part of many people’s daily lives. The streaming device turns any TV into asmart TVand any TV that has built-in Roku capabilities allows you to stream your favorite shows, movies, and events with ease. There are many differentRoku deviceson the market and each of them provides a similar interface that fans are accustomed to and can navigate easily.
But, along with that interface, which features multiple boxes that highlight the apps that a user has downloaded as well as the channels that they may want to use, there are ads. As with almost any company trying to make money, ad revenue helps pay the bills. Even though a user paid for the Roku, they may not want to deal with the ads that pop up while they’re trying to use said product.
So how exactly can a user minimize the amount of ads they are seeing? What if they don’t like the content of the ads? Here is a breakdown of how to eliminate specific ads from yourRoku TVand Roku devices.
9 free Roku channels you’ll actually want to turn on
Out of all the free channels, these are the 9 I actually want to watch on my Roku TV.
It isn’t too difficult to eliminate certain types
To start, maybe you won’t hate all of the Roku TV ads. Some of them might annoy you, and you want to get rid of the possibility that they could show up on your home page. There’s an easy way to customize the type of ads that you are receiving.
From the home menu, scroll over to the left-hand side and down to Settings. In Settings, select privacy, followed by advertising. Then select Sensitive ad content.
In order to be able to change your ad preferences, you need to select the box that says “Personalized ads.” Once that is enabled, you’re able to scroll through and choose which ads you want to avoid. From there, you are able to select the category of ads that you can see fewer of.
The options are:
Note: There is a disclaimer that said that these settings only apply to the Roku home screen and they don’t apply to video ads or ads shown on the apps used on your Roku
Roku is preparing to show video ads on its homescreen interface
It’ll be joining the likes of Amazon and Google.
Maybe you’re scrolling through your apps to try and decide which one you should watch next. But as you’re going through each page, you see a really annoying ad that you just don’t want to look at. You can pinpoint it and eliminate it so it won’t come back again on your screen.
It’s incredibly simple to do as all you need to do is take your Roku remote and move the arrow over the ad you don’t want to see. Rather than clicking the OK button on your remote, which would engage with the ad and open it up, you just need to be on the ad and have it highlighted and press the * button. Once you press the * button, a pop-up window will show up that asks you if you want to hide this ad. You can also manage ad preferences from this pop-up (which will bring you to the menu we discussed in the previous section), or you can cancel and the ad will stay there.
If you do select Hide this ad, a new ad will replace it almost instantly. You won’t be removing all ads from your Roku home screen unfortunately. But you will be getting rid of the one that was bothering you. It should be noted that you may only hide a certain number of ads each day. That number will reset after 24 hours. You also won’t be able to remove any of the ads that come up from the screensaver that appears after your Roku has been idle for a while. That is unavoidable unless you keep your Roku in constant use or shut off your TV.
I use my iPhone as a remote for my Roku TV – here’s how
Whether you lost your remote or want a more streamlined navigation experience, using your phone to control your Roku TV is easy.
