Amazon Fire TV is overriding screensavers with full-screen ads

Published Jul 5th, 2024 2:07PM EDT

Amazon is finding fresh, increasingly annoying ways for your Fire TV to serve you ads at every available opportunity. This week, Cord Cutter News reported that Amazon has started replacing the screensaver on Fire TVs with full-screen ads that take over the entire display.

As Cord Cutter News explains, if you leave your Fire TV idle for too long, a full-screen ad starts running for 30 seconds to a minute before the screensaver appears. Amazon confirmed that the ads are part of the Fire TV Ambient Experience, which the company says “transforms a TV into an Alexa-powered smart display when not streaming.”

Here’s what the ads look like so you know what to look out for (via Cord Cutter News):

Full-screen ads on an Amazon Fire TV. Image source: Cord Cutter News

Previously, a screensaver would start automatically after 5, 10, or 15 minutes, depending on the user’s settings. Now, Fire TV owners are going to have to see a full-screen ad every time the TV sits idle for more than a few minutes at a time. The full-screen ads are reportedly showing up on all Amazon Fire TVs made in 2016 or later.

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These new ads are not quite as egregious as the video ads Amazon added to Fire TVs late last year. Cord Cutter News was first to report last fall that Amazon Fire TVs would start playing full-screen video ads every time a users turned on their TV.

Thankfully, Amazon recently updated those ads to be far less intrusive. The video ads no longer takes up the whole screen, and it’s easier to dismiss the ad as well.

Ads are becoming increasingly unavoidable, no matter which hardware you own. In fact, Roku plans to bring video ads to its home screen as soon as possible. Earlier this year, Roku CEO Anthony Wood told investors the company is “looking at other experiences we can add to the home screen that would be where we can innovate more video advertising.”

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.

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