{"id":34028,"date":"2020-03-11T07:42:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T11:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=34028"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:17:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T17:17:21","slug":"digital-sanctuary-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/03\/11\/digital-sanctuary-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Sanctuary No More"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a title=\"My First Roku\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/49602486852\/in\/photolist-2izcHdy\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49602486852_0607089e3d_z.jpg?resize=640%2C452&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"My First Roku\" width=\"640\" height=\"452\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a0My first Roku<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nI got my first <em>Roku<\/em> streaming box almost ten years ago. <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/09\/09\/year-roku\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I have written before<\/a> of my stubborn resistance to a cable TV subscription and my struggle with rabbit ears and video shops. When I first heard of streaming boxes, I had my doubts, but the <em>Roku HD<\/em> was the best $60 I ever spent. I was a little ahead of the curve so my description of the Roku as a magic, internet-enabled, box packed to the gills with content was usually met with a sad dismissive grin reserved for precocious children explaining why sharks are so much cooler than bears. <em>Guy&#8217;s too friggin&#8217; cheap to get cable! Weirdo!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now everybody streams and have fled or are in the process of fleeing cable seeing it as a totally unnecessary expense. People won&#8217;t shut the hell up about <em>Netflix<\/em>. The rest of the world has caught up with streaming, but tragically, so have advertisers.<\/p>\n<p>Not all of the channels on streaming platforms are subscription based. A number of them are supported by advertisements like <em>PlutoTV<\/em> or <em>Crackle<\/em> which makes sense. Companies are sitting on mountains of intellectual property so they may as well cart them out of storage and make a little rent.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/03\/11\/digital-sanctuary-no-more\/political-crap\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-34070\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"34070\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/03\/11\/digital-sanctuary-no-more\/political-crap\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/political-crap.jpg?fit=640%2C360&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"political-crap\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/political-crap.jpg?fit=640%2C360&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-34070\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/political-crap.jpg?resize=640%2C360&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/political-crap.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/political-crap.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The problem is that the placement of the advertisements seems to be decided by machine; are being injected into programming more and more, and the streaming platforms are now too happy to take money from pharmaceutical companies and, worse yet, political campaigns. In 2011, I wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One of the great things about the Roku was that I was able to completely avoid last season\u2019s election cycle ads. I completely missed out on all of those terribly expensive but ham-fisted 30 and 60 second spots where a candidate is filmed chatting with a crowd of carefully selected, perfectly cast, ordinary Americans. as well as the negative campaign ads that claimed that the opposition regularly dines on the tender flesh of infants. No, I was happily basking in the wonderful world of internet enabled, commercial free television and completely side stepping the urgent messages from the Blue and Red duopoly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Those days are over. Enough people are streaming that it makes sense for ad agencies to buy blocks of time from streaming platforms. They were all too glad to take <em>Mike Bloomberg&#8217;s<\/em> money. It was impossible to escape his ads. They were everywhere. I think I was receiving his message through the fillings in my teeth. I don&#8217;t know how I&#8217;m going to survive the 2020 election cycle. It&#8217;s going to get shrill. I think I may have to give the <em>Roku<\/em> a rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got my first Roku streaming box almost ten years ago. I have written before of my stubborn resistance to a cable TV subscription and my struggle with rabbit ears and video shops. When I first heard of streaming boxes, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/03\/11\/digital-sanctuary-no-more\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3456],"tags":[4862,1271,1044,3997,185],"class_list":["post-34028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weird-world-of-the-roku","tag-4862","tag-ads","tag-commercials","tag-election","tag-roku"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-8QQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1924,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/11\/30\/i-want-my-roku-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":34028,"position":0},"title":"I Want My Roku TV!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is Tina's birthday card to me for 2010. It's another one of her brilliant digital collages. Tina usually bases the card on whatever my current obsession may be (it seems there is never a shortage!) This year she's ribbing me over my fixation with the Roku which is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Drawer Cards&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"TV Man - I Want My Roku TV!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5287\/5221078570_67d60fae3b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20940,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2016\/08\/04\/pluto-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":34028,"position":1},"title":"Pluto TV","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A post-Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, pre-Trog Joan Crawford in an episode of forgotten television series Route 66. I discovered this odd television guest appearance while surfing the channels on my Roku box. Yes, you can surf channels on the Roku just as you can on a cable TV subscription\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weird World of the Roku&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weird World of the Roku","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/weird-world-of-the-roku\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/plutotv.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/plutotv.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/plutotv.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44047,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/11\/05\/is-it-over-yet\/","url_meta":{"origin":34028,"position":2},"title":"Is it over yet?","author":"Joe","date":"November 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"14 years ago when I purchased my first Roku box, the whole concept of streaming video was in its infancy and it was great! For a fraction of the cost of a cable television subscription I could watch what I wanted when I wanted. Sadly, the notion of streaming caught\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weird World of the Roku&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weird World of the Roku","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/weird-world-of-the-roku\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/REV-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.jpg?fit=1152%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/REV-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.jpg?fit=1152%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/REV-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.jpg?fit=1152%2C864&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/REV-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.jpg?fit=1152%2C864&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/REV-RCA_Indian_Head_test_pattern.jpg?fit=1152%2C864&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19607,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/09\/15\/not-quite-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":34028,"position":3},"title":"Not Quite Dead","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Having received an email about the obsolescence of my Roku HD from the company that manufactured it,\u00a0 I recently wrote an obituary for my dear departed media player. I was in mourning, but it seems that the reports of my Roku's demise were somewhat exaggerated. Curious I went up to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Joe's Garage&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Joe's Garage","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/joes-garage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/archive-password.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/archive-password.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/archive-password.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4190,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/03\/05\/wonderfully-weird-channels-roku\/","url_meta":{"origin":34028,"position":4},"title":"The Wonderfully Weird Channels of the Roku","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm starting a new category that could be considered for cord-cutters or folks looking to save some serious cash by giving cable TV the heave-ho. I could be considered a cord-cutter in a way although I never had a cord to cut in my current residence. Back when the city\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Stuff Joe Likes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Stuff Joe Likes","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/stuff-joe-likes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-18-at-12.20.52-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-18-at-12.20.52-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-18-at-12.20.52-PM.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-18-at-12.20.52-PM.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-18-at-12.20.52-PM.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-18-at-12.20.52-PM.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41252,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/08\/22\/weird-channel-workaround-on-the-roku\/","url_meta":{"origin":34028,"position":5},"title":"Weird Channel Workaround on the Roku","author":"Joe","date":"August 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my more popular posts on this website is The Wonderfully Weird Channels on the Roku which was about the more obscure offerings on my favorite set-top streaming box. Sadly, my first suggested channel which was an unofficial portal to the fabulous Internet Archive has been retired. The Archive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weird World of the Roku&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weird World of the Roku","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/weird-world-of-the-roku\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/safari-window-archive.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/safari-window-archive.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/safari-window-archive.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/safari-window-archive.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/safari-window-archive.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/safari-window-archive.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}