Home AdExchanger Talks Podcast: Roku Like A Hurricane
PODCAST: AdExchanger Talks

Podcast: Roku Like A Hurricane

By

SHARE:

Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here.

Roku is that rare startup that can go up against tech behemoths like Google, Apple and Amazon and win. It has more share in the TV streaming player market than any of those companies individually. Moreover, revenue from advertising and media represents a key part of its growth story, contributing more than $100 million in 2016 revenue.

This week on the podcast, SVP and platform GM Scott Rosenberg tells the Roku story and describes in detail the ad model that has helped propel the company to a post-IPO valuation of more than $4 billion.

Early on, he says, “We realized that the fastest-growing segment of channels on our platform [is] ad-supported channels.” These were either free or dual-revenue stream channels that sold 15- and 30-second spots. To capitalize on that consumer trend, “we chose to start integrating ad tech directly into our advertising system and moreover start negotiating for a share of advertising inventory in those channels.”

Just like an MVPD in the linear TV space, Roku asks programmers to allot a certain percentage of inventory per hour as part of their carriage deals on its platform. It worked: Roku’s platform business (including content and ads) now supplies 90% of the company’s profits, and advertising accounts for two-thirds of the platform business.

Also in this episode: The value of Roku’s data, the future of OTT ads and the outlook for TV ad tech as a whole.

Must Read

Platforms

Critics Say The Trade Desk Is Forcing Kokai Adoption, But Apparently It’s Up To Agencies

Is TTD forcing agencies to adopt the new Kokai interface despite claims they can still use the interface of their choice? Here’s what we were able to find out.

Commerce

Why Big Brand Price Increases Will Flatten Ad Budgets

Product prices and marketing budgets are flip sides of the same coin. But the phase-in effects of tariffs, combined with vicissitudes of global weather and commodity production, challenge that truism.

Publishers

The IAB Tech Lab Isn’t Pulling Any Punches In The Fight Against AI Scraping

IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur didn’t mince his words when declaring unauthorized generative AI scraping of publisher content “theft, full stop.”

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Comic: Gamechanger (Google lost the DOJ's search antitrust case)
Google ad tech antitrust trial

Here’s Who’s Testifying During The Remedy Phase Of Google’s Ad Tech Antitrust Trial

Last week, the DOJ and Google filed their respective witness lists and the exhibit lists for the remedy phase of the ad tech antitrust trial. Lots of familiar faces!

Agencies

MX8 Labs Launches With A Plan To Speed Up The Survey-Based Research Biz

What’s the point of a market research survey that could take weeks, when consumer sentiment is rollercoasting up and down every day? That’s the problem MX8 Labs aims to tackle.

Q2 earnings

Investors Sour On Programmatic After The Trade Desk Fumbles A Question About Amazon

When The Trade Desk sneezes, ad tech catches a cold.

Popular

  1. Platforms

    Critics Say The Trade Desk Is Forcing Kokai Adoption, But Apparently It’s Up To Agencies

    Is TTD forcing agencies to adopt the new Kokai interface despite claims they can still use the interface of their choice? Here’s what we were able to find out.

  2. PODCAST: The Big Story

    Remedying A Monopolistic Ad Server

    We’ve got the witness list for the remedy phase of the Google antitrust trial, which starts in September. How might Google be forced to change its ad server and exchange to make this corner of the ad tech market competitive again?

  3. CTV Roundup

    How Wildgrain Developed The Right Recipe For CTV Advertising

    CTV advertising platforms often try to sell small businesses on how closely the channel resembles the digital marketing avenues they’re used to working with, like paid social. For Wildgrain, a DTC subscription service for artisan breads and other grain-based foods, this argument proved to be very compelling.

  4. Comic: Revenue "Sharing" (starring Marck Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai)
    Daily News Roundup

    Publisher Payment Plans; The Details Of Retail Data Deals

    Meta’s AI vibes have been very different lately; times are tough for The Trade Desk; and fingerprinting has a bad reputation.

  5. Comic: Gamechanger (Google lost the DOJ's search antitrust case)
    Google ad tech antitrust trial

    Here’s Who’s Testifying During The Remedy Phase Of Google’s Ad Tech Antitrust Trial

    Last week, the DOJ and Google filed their respective witness lists and the exhibit lists for the remedy phase of the ad tech antitrust trial. Lots of familiar faces!