Roku wants to patent the ability to display ads when consoles connected to its TVs are paused

A patent application by streaming TV company Roku suggests it wants to be able to display ads on its branded smart TVs when HDMI devices such as consoles are paused.

While Roku originally started off by making streaming devices and sticks, in recent years it has started releasing branded smart televisions with the Roku software built in.

Roku’s software features a screensaver which appears during moments of inactivity, and the company makes extra money by placing ads on this screensaver.

However, when the TV is being used to play an HDMI device, such as a game console, Roku’s software is no longer running and it can essentially no longer make advertising revenue through its branded TVs.

Roku’s patent, which was spotted by Lowpass and is still pending, would address this by showing ads on the TV screen any time the HDMI device is in a pause state.

According to the patent’s description, the TV would study the signal coming in from the HDMI cable and would attempt to determine when the picture and audio have been the same for a period (i.e. when a game is paused).

It would then intercept the HDMI picture and replace it with an ad, presumably until the HDMI picture changes again (i.e. when the player unpauses the game).

The patent also explores the idea of studying the HDMI image to determine what sort of content has been paused, so it can provide ads that fit its context.

Theoretically, this could mean if a player is playing EA Sports FC and pauses the game, the smart TV could determine that the game has been paused, identify that a football game was being played and show a football-related ad on the TV.

It should be stressed that even if the patent is eventually granted, it wouldn’t mean Roku would definitely implement this in its smart TVs in the future, as tech companies regularly patent new ideas that are never used.