The Next Generation of TV Advertising. You Can’t Get Rid of It
Amazon has come up with a new way to show ads to users, and this time, the Fire TV box is in the lead role.
Advertisements on both service platforms and the hardware itself no longer surprise anyone, but Amazon shows that the last word in this matter has not yet been said.
After marketing content began appearing on streaming services before videos, as cutscenes and on-screen overlays, the Seattle company is pushing a different idea. Amazon Fire TV users are reporting that ads have also started appearing on the screen saver.
Previously, when the device was inactive for a long time, Fire TV would display a set of generic graphics that not only enhanced the aesthetics of the system, but also prevented pixel burn-in on OLED TVs.
Now, in turn, before the actual screensaver starts, users in selected regions get an ad lasting from 30 seconds to about 1 minute. Worse, according to reports, it cannot be skipped, meaning that if the set-top box starts going into standby mode and someone then suddenly wants to wake up the device, they have to wait until the end of the advert.
How invasive this is is up to everyone to judge for themselves. The fact is, however, that not everyone likes Amazon wanting to turn their TV into an advertising billboard even when they are not actively watching content.
