The Roku Channel is further bulking up on exclusive content to stand out in an increasingly competitive market for free, ad-supported streaming services.
The company today said a new scripted series, “CYPHER,” will premiere exclusively on The Roku Channel on March 19 and will be available for the first time to viewers in the U.S. and Canada.
“As The Roku Channel continues to grow, we’re constantly looking for ways to elevate the streaming experience for our viewers and get them to great entertainment easily and for free,” said Sweta Patel, vice president of engagement growth marketing at Roku, in a statement. “Because of The Roku Channel’s incredible reach, ‘CYPHER’ has the ability to be streamed by millions of engaged viewers.”
During Roku’s most recent earnings call, the company said usage of The Roku Channel grew nearly twice as fast as its overall platform and reached U.S. households with an estimated 63 million people. Roku has 51.2 million active accounts on its platform.
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The Roku Channel’s new exclusive series is a prelude to the service’s upcoming launch of Quibi’s content library, which will be available for free on an ad-supported basis in 2021 to all Roku users.
The deal includes more than 75 shows and documentaries featuring Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Richie, Chrissy Teigen and Lena Waithe. In addition to the full range of titles that had previously premiered on Quibi, more than a dozen new programs will make their exclusive debut on The Roku Channel.
Media analyst firm MoffettNathanson said that Roku’s future success is highly dependent on the Roku Channel and estimated that the service contributes 65% of the company’s video advertising revenues today. In 2020, Roku recorded $1.8 billion in revenue, $1.3 billion of which was platform revenue, which is generated through ad sales, subscription and transactional revenue sharing, sales of premium channels and branded channel buttons, and licensing agreements with TV manufacturers and operators.
The Roku Channel has launched on competing connected devices like Amazon Fire TV but MoffettNathanson said it believes the service’s impression growth will likely need to come from on-platform usage.
“While bringing the Roku Channel off-platform may open up the broader AVOD market beyond Roku devices, there have yet to be signs that the Roku Channel can exist on its own,” wrote Michael Nathanson in a research note. “…We believe Roku will need to invest in more/exclusive content to compete on a level playing field against other AVOD services like Pluto and Tubi.”