Rewarded ads for Smart TV games: a remote-first guide

Why rewarded ads fit TV games

A rewarded ad is a trade the player opts into: watch a video (or scan a code), get something in the game. That fits the living room better than any other format:

• Nothing interrupts play. The ad only runs when the player picks it, so it never lands in the middle of a jump.
• The TV is good at video. A full-screen video on a big screen is what TVs do best, unlike a banner nobody can click.
• It respects the people who don't want ads. They just don't press the button.

Where to place rewarded ads

Offer the reward at moments when the player already wants something:

• Continue after game over: "Watch an ad to keep your score and continue." A natural fit for arcade games.
• Extra life when the last one is lost.
• Double the coins on the level-complete screen.
• A hint in puzzle games, offered after a few failed attempts.
• A daily bonus on the start screen.

Make the offer one clearly focused button with the reward written on it ("Watch ad: +1 life"), and a second button to decline. Don't make "watch" the default focus on a screen where a fast OK press could start it by accident.

Remote UX: focus, OK and BACK

Every remote has a D-pad, OK and BACK. Some LG remotes add a pointer (the Magic Remote). The ad screen has to work with all of them:

• One focused action at a time, with a thick, visible focus ring. During a rewarded video that is the close button once closing is allowed.
• OK arrives as Enter (keyCode 13). A Magic Remote click on the button should do the same.
• BACK is keyCode 10009 on Samsung Tizen and 461 on LG webOS; Escape or Backspace elsewhere. BACK must always do something.
• "No reward if you close" written next to the close button, so ending early is an informed choice, not a surprise.
• Swallow the D-pad while the ad is up, so arrow presses don't move the game behind it.

In SofAds, BACK can end a rewarded video after a short abort_after period (3 seconds by default) and forfeits the reward; on a video that never started it exits at once.

Pause your render loop

Many TV games draw on a WebGL canvas with frameworks like Lightning or Blits. On low-end TV chips, a running render loop and a decoding video compete for the same GPU, and the video stutters. Stop your loop before the ad, start it again after:

SofAds.init({
  appId: "sof_YOUR_APP_ID",
  onPause: () => game.stopRenderLoop(),   // before the ad renders
  onResume: () => game.startRenderLoop(), // always follows onPause
});

Mute your game's own audio in the same hook, and restore it in onResume.

Scan-to-reward vs watch-to-reward

Watching is not the only way to earn a reward. With scan-to-reward, the ad shows a QR code; the player scans it with their phone, and the reward is granted as soon as the scan is registered.

• Watch-to-reward: the reward comes after the video completes. Predictable, needs no phone.
• Scan-to-reward: no 30-second wait for the player, and the advertiser gets a visit on the phone. It needs a phone nearby, and a clear Close button for players who don't want to scan.

Your game code doesn't need to care which one it gets: grant the reward in one callback. More on the QR side in QR code ads on TV.

Code example

A continue-after-game-over flow with the SofAds SDK. The reward amount shown on the ad screen can be set per placement in the dashboard, or overridden per call:

async function offerContinue() {
  const r = await SofAds.showRewarded({
    placement: "continue",
    reward: { amount: 1, name: "continue" },
    onReward: () => { game.continueFromCheckpoint(); }, // called at most once
  });

  if (!r.rewarded) game.showGameOver();
  // r.status: "shown" | "no_fill" | "error" | "timeout"
  // r.skipped is true when the player ended the ad early
}

Grant the reward in onReward, not after the promise resolves: with scan-to-reward, the reward arrives while the ad is still on screen.

Never-break-the-game rules

• Every ad call must end. Use a timeout on the request, on video start and on stalls. A black screen with no way out is the worst outcome on a TV.
• Plan for no fill. Sometimes no ad is available. Decide up front: hide the offer, or grant the reward anyway. Never show "watch an ad" and then nothing.
• Grant once. Guard the reward so a retry, a double callback or a reconnect can't grant it twice.
• Don't punish closing. A player who closes early loses the reward, nothing more.
• Cap frequency. Rewarded ads are opt-in, but a continue offer after every 20-second round wears thin.