Roku OS’s home screen now features a large, permanent ad
Roku OS’s home screen now features a large, permanent ad
Roku OS 主屏幕现已加入大型永久广告
Roku just unveiled the biggest overhaul to its smart TV operating system (OS) in 10 years. One of the most noticeable differences is that ad space now takes up a large chunk of the screen’s landing page. Roku 刚刚发布了其智能电视操作系统 (OS) 十年来最大的一次改版。最显著的变化之一是，广告位现在占据了屏幕着陆页的很大一部分空间。
Before the update, loading up a Roku OS-powered smart TV or streaming device would yield a menu on the left side with sections including “What to Watch,” “Live,” and “Search.” The right side had a row of tiles for “Recommended” content above several rows of tiles representing downloaded apps. Once a user started navigating the home screen, the menu would collapse, and they’d see a large ad on the right side of the screen. 在更新之前，启动搭载 Roku OS 的智能电视或流媒体设备时，左侧会显示一个菜单，包含“观看内容”、“直播”和“搜索”等板块。右侧则有一排“推荐”内容磁贴，下方是代表已下载应用的多个磁贴行。当用户开始浏览主屏幕时，菜单会收起，用户会在屏幕右侧看到一个大型广告。
Now, users will see that large ad as soon as they turn on their Roku device. The ad remains visible as you navigate different parts of the Roku platform, taking away space that could be used for displaying apps and content. The marquee ad space can show marketing for a TV show or movie that you can stream. For example, the image that Roku shared with its announcement shows the space occupied by an ad for the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso. 现在，用户一打开 Roku 设备就会看到那个大型广告。当你浏览 Roku 平台的各个部分时，该广告始终可见，占用了本可用于显示应用和内容的空间。这个醒目的广告位可以展示你可以观看的电视节目或电影的营销内容。例如，Roku 在公告中分享的图片显示，该位置被 Apple TV+ 剧集《泰德·拉索》(Ted Lasso) 的广告所占据。
The ad space could also just show a regular, possibly unrelated, advertisement. CNET, for example, reported seeing a demonstration that showed the space filled with an ad for The Farmer’s Dog dog food. CNET, citing a discussion with Preston Smalley, VP of viewer product at Roku, reported “that the proportion of each type [of ad], paid or programmed, wasn’t set and could change.” 广告位也可能只显示普通的、甚至可能无关的广告。例如，CNET 报道称，在演示中看到该位置被“The Farmer’s Dog”狗粮的广告所占据。CNET 援引与 Roku 观众产品副总裁 Preston Smalley 的讨论报道称，“每种类型（付费或程序化）广告的比例尚未确定，未来可能会发生变化。”
The home screen makeover seems tied to Roku’s efforts to maintain profitability. Roku first reached annual profitability in 2021, largely due to people staying at home during the pandemic. However, the company didn’t see annual profitability again until 2025, when its finances were buoyed by a growth in advertising revenue. In its most recent earnings report, Roku made $371 million in advertising revenue, and its Platform business, which includes advertising and subscriptions, posted a gross profit of $584.1 million. Roku’s devices business, meanwhile, lost $19.1 million. Total gross profit was $564.9 million. 此次主屏幕改版似乎与 Roku 维持盈利能力的努力有关。Roku 在 2021 年首次实现年度盈利，这在很大程度上归功于疫情期间人们居家的时间增加。然而，直到 2025 年，在广告收入增长的推动下，该公司才再次实现年度盈利。在最近的财报中，Roku 的广告收入为 3.71 亿美元，其包含广告和订阅业务的平台业务毛利润为 5.841 亿美元。与此同时，Roku 的设备业务亏损了 1910 万美元。总毛利润为 5.649 亿美元。
In a February earnings call, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said that he thinks the new home screen, which was in testing at the time, would “increase monetization over time, whether that’s getting viewers to sign up for subscriptions or watch more ad-supported content.” 在二月份的财报电话会议上，Roku 首席执行官 Anthony Wood 表示，他认为当时处于测试阶段的新主屏幕将“随着时间的推移增加变现能力，无论是通过吸引观众订阅，还是观看更多广告支持的内容。”
Other changes
其他变化
The new Roku OS home screen also has a slimmer left sidebar menu with images replacing text. In the center are tiles for “Top Picks for You” above rows of tiles for “Quick Access.” The former, per Roku’s announcement, is a “personalized row that makes recommendations and highlights trending and relevant content based on your interest,” where “no two people will see the same mix.” Quick Access, meanwhile, uses AI to show users’ “most-used apps and shortcuts.” 新的 Roku OS 主屏幕还拥有更纤细的左侧边栏菜单，并用图片取代了文字。中心位置是“为您精选”磁贴，下方是“快速访问”磁贴行。根据 Roku 的公告，前者是一个“基于你的兴趣进行推荐并突出显示热门及相关内容的个性化行”，其中“没有两个人的内容组合是完全相同的”。与此同时，快速访问功能利用人工智能来显示用户“最常用的应用和快捷方式”。
“One of the things we found is that not very many people actually customized those app screens,” Smalley told Fast Company. “They’d end up scrolling all the way to the bottom of this long list. So, what we wanted to do was actually pull that all together in a way that made sense for you.” “我们发现的一件事是，并没有多少人真正去自定义那些应用屏幕，”Smalley 在接受《Fast Company》采访时说。“他们最终会一直滚动到长列表的最底部。所以，我们想做的是以一种对你来说更合理的方式将它们整合在一起。”
Other changes include the addition of a section called Destinations, which Roku said are “curated hubs [that] span genres and moods,” such as comedies, sports, and movies, with content across different streaming services. 其他变化包括增加了一个名为“目的地”(Destinations) 的板块，Roku 称其为“跨越不同类型和情绪的精选中心”，例如喜剧、体育和电影，内容涵盖不同的流媒体服务。
However, some users are perturbed by the new home screen. “I don’t want recommendations! I know what I want to watch. Plastering ads for shit you think I want to see is the fastest way to get me to not watch it. This is going to suck,” an apparent Roku user going by Kruse on Reddit posted today. 然而，一些用户对新的主屏幕感到困扰。一位在 Reddit 上名为 Kruse 的 Roku 用户今天发帖称：“我不想要推荐！我知道我想看什么。到处张贴你认为我想看的垃圾广告，只会让我最快地放弃观看。这太糟糕了。”
One feature that could be useful but that’s not included in the update would be an easy way to play recently viewed content from across apps directly from the home screen, so you can quickly get back to watching. With Roku’s update, users can pin a “Continue Watching” tile to the Quick Access section or to their “shortcuts.” However, you’d have to enter the tile to access content, instead of being able to click play from the home screen, like some other smart TV OSes allow. Although, such a feature would be technically challenging to implement, especially among older Roku devices. 一个可能有用但未包含在本次更新中的功能是：从主屏幕直接播放各应用中最近观看的内容，以便用户快速恢复观看。通过 Roku 的更新，用户可以将“继续观看”磁贴固定到“快速访问”部分或“快捷方式”中。然而，你必须进入该磁贴才能访问内容，而不是像其他一些智能电视操作系统那样可以直接从主屏幕点击播放。不过，实现这样的功能在技术上具有挑战性，尤其是在较旧的 Roku 设备上。
Overall, Roku’s home screen update seems more geared toward recommending new stuff and using AI, rather than just recent history, to try to guess at what you might want to watch. Roku TVs and streaming devices in the US will start seeing the new home screen today. “The update will arrive automatically,” Roku noted. 总的来说，Roku 的主屏幕更新似乎更倾向于推荐新内容并利用人工智能（而非仅仅依靠近期历史记录）来猜测你可能想看什么。美国的 Roku 电视和流媒体设备将从今天开始看到新的主屏幕。Roku 指出：“更新将自动送达。”