According to a filing made back in August 2023, Roku has applied to patent the ability to stream ads to your display while other HDMI devices are paused.
The filing was found by lowpass, and the filing in question appears to be for “HDMi customized ad insertion.” The official filing was made on August 2023, and the status is currently listed as pending for the patent. The patent directly says Roku is looking into displaying ads on your Roku TV while other devices are paused to display them for the audience (or lack thereof).
The filing goes just a step further than that. It says, “Some embodiments include determining the context and/or content of the media content that is paused and determining an ad that is customized to the determined context and/or content to be displayed on the display device,” which means the Roku TV will display relevant ads to the content the user paused, that is connected to the TV via HDMI connection.
While the TV company has already launched an ad-based idle screen saver called “Roku City” that features ads regularly, the TV can’t display ads when another device is connected via HDMI, and this is what the company is trying to accomplish. Roku doesn’t allow consumers to use their own screensavers, including “ad insertion” or “in-app purchases,” so it’s pretty clear how much the company values idle time.
The official US Patent website has the patent currently listed as ‘published’ as early as November 2023 and the patent-pending process could normally take months to years. So while Roku may want to display ads on your downtime between sessions on an HDMI-attached device, the patent they filed for hasn’t been cleared just yet. Consumers interested in the patent status can visit this website, and can head over to the original lowpass article for more info on the patent filing.
