Roku is betting big on creator content, launching a new dedicated destination and several new FAST channels for creators on its platform, Hollywood Reporter I’ve learned.
According to Lisa Holme, head of content at Roku Media, the company will also increase the amount of licensed programming the platform has from top creators, with FAST channels from Prof G Podcast, iShowSpeed, Jesser, the Stokes Twins and other creators set to join the platform as well.
“We see that demand among both audiences and, significantly, advertisers has continued to grow, and as Roku thinks about offering its own content, we want to make sure we have a good selection of anything the consumer wants to watch,” Hulme says. THRAdding that the platform responds to the signals it receives from users. Viewership rate [creator content on Roku Channel] It continues to grow, and that’s a sign of increased demand, and then we also see what people are searching for, whether they’re watching with us or not, and we’ve just seen an increase in search traffic for that type of content, for specific creators, for creator content types.
“The goal is to make it easier for them to access it, because we already know they are looking for it,” she adds.
The new Creator Center will include both licensed creator content as well as programming from Roku partners like Peacock and HBO Max. Users who click through to partner programming will be redirected to those apps.
“We’ve really pulled back from the whole ecosystem and tried to present it in a way that really helps our users find what they’re interested in, so there’s reality shows from Peacock that have influencers, to name a few,” says Hulme. “It’s really kind of differentiating what Roku can do uniquely, which is that we have every app on the platform, and we have deep integrations with most of those apps for search and browsing, so we can serve their content at the platform level, at the video level.”
Hulme says the platform is actively talking to some of YouTube’s big creators, arguing that they can serve an audience that doesn’t access their content on the Google-owned video platform. It’s a similar argument to what Netflix told creators, even though Roku’s offering is free.
“I think the first thing we look for is, do they have a large audience and a large following that suggests there may still be untapped audiences? Because Roku in general will provide an incremental audience compared to the audience they might already reach on YouTube,” she says.
