Amazon Fire TV

Amazon is now automatically playing fullscreen video ads on Fire TV

Ben Schoon | Dec 1 2023 - 12:41 pm PT

Almost every smart TV platform is, at this point, a billboard for ads with your apps sprinkled in, but where the line is drawn for many is automatically playing videos. Now, Amazon Fire TV is showing fullscreen video ads to users, and there’s no way to avoid it.

According to some Fire TV owners, the latest updates from Amazon have introduced fullscreen video ads that play by themselves. The ads apparently show up quickly after the TV has been turned on and with no user input. Effectively, after the TV has loaded up, the ad starts playing.

This is in addition to other ads that are already in place on the homescreen, too.

Update 12/1: Since our initial report on November 23, Amazon’s new fullscreen video ads have widely rolled out to Fire TV owners, whether that’s on a smart TV built on Amazon’s platform or a Fire TV streaming device (like the Fire TV Stick).

As AFTVNews points out, the reason the ads appear in fullscreen is that Amazon has moved the default cursor position of the remote to hover over the ad. And, unlike what was initially thought, there is no way to avoid it, as turning off autoplay ads doesn’t remove the new fullscreen behavior but, rather, replaces the video with a static image (though that’s at least slightly less obnoxious.

Our original report follows:

As FlatPanelsHD points out, this likely traces back to the debut of new ad formats on Amazon Fire TV, which were detailed by Lowpass earlier this month.

In a statement to CordCuttersNews, Amazon said:

Our focus is on delivering an immersive experience so customers can enjoy their favorite TV shows and movies, as well as browse and discover more content they’ll want to watch. We’re always working to make the Fire TV experience better for customers and have updated one of the prominent placements in the UI to play a short content preview if no other action is taken by a customer upon turning on their Fire TV.

Of course, Amazon isn’t fully alone here. Google TV and Android TV do something remarkably similar with fullscreen ads but with one major difference. Where Google’s platforms require that you “hover” over the video, users claim that Amazon is just launching these video ads without any input whatsoever, which obviously feels very intrusive, as seen below.

Meanwhile, Amazon is reportedly getting ready to overhaul the Fire TV ecosystem by replacing Android as the base operating system with an in-house OS.