Advertisements have been a regular part of television for so long that I can’t even imagine having a TV-watching experience without there being commercials. Being so used to advertisements has the added benefit of making me subconsciously ignoring them, which is obviously something that advertisers don’t want, which is why Roku has decided to team up with video advertising provider Innovid to create ads that you’ll actually interact with. 

Most of us have come to expect ads as a part of the television viewing experience, whether we like it or not. Given the chance, we’ll skip them when we can. Otherwise, we’ll probably ignore them. Now Roku is teaming up with video advertising provider Innovid to try to get us to pay attention. How? By adding interactivity to the ads, TechCrunch reports. Viewers will see advertisements for local retailers, extended video ads for certain products, and even take quizzes and play games using the Roku remote. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Roku and Innovid have teamed up for this type of advertising before, but only for one-offs. These new ads will come as part of a longer-term partnership. Early on the ads will appear on Crackle, VEVO, and a number of channels from CBS including CBS News, CBS Sports, CNET, GameSpot. The Innovid advertising system will be added to the Roku software development kit (SDK), so eventually any channel will be able to add interative advertisements to its programming. Whether or not channels will adopt the new ads likely depends on the response from viewers, as well as how lucrative the ads prove to be.