If you’re like most people, you probably don’t like having interactive pop-up ads on your TV. They can be intrusive and annoying, and they take up valuable screen space. Fortunately, there’s a way to disable them on your Roku TV. To disable interactive pop-ups on your Roku TV, first go to the Settings menu. From here, select System > Ads & Inputs > Interactive Pop-Ups. You’ll see a list of all the ads that are currently active on your TV. To disable an ad, just select it and press the X button. If you want to reenable interactive pop-ups later on, just go back to the System > Ads & Inputs > Interactive Pop-Ups menu and select the ad that you want to reenable. ..
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.
RELATED: The Smart TV Crapware Era Has Already Begun