As part of The Drum’s ramped-up TV coverage, media editor John McCarthy and TV reporter Hannah Bowler have launched a podcast series, TV Talks. In the third episode, our special guest is Kristina Shepard, head of agency partnerships and national brand team lead at Roku.
On May 3 Roku will be hosting its first in-person upfront in New York after its virtual debut in 2020. This historic broadcast TV event has become increasingly dominated by the new streamers. Roku’s head of agency partnerships and national brand team lead Kristina Shepard tells The Drum 2022 is the year streaming measures up to broadcast at the upfronts.
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Roku is leaning hard into original programming.
At its 2021
NewFronts pitch, the streaming TV company presented its first slate of originals and emphasized the growth in streaming audiences versus the decline in viewers of linear TV.
Roku now reaches 148 million viewers, with a median age of 39 years old,
Alison Levin, its VP of ad revenue and marketing solutions, said during a prerecorded presentation.
Courtesy of Roku
At the core of Roku’s content push are a few key elements: The former slate of Quibi shows (now rebranded as “Roku Originals”), content from This Old House, which Roku acquired in March, and original content created through its newly launched content studio.
Roku, the market leader among streaming device makers, has long pitched itself as the overarching platform of streaming TV, a place to find content from any network or content company. That basic pitch isn’t changing, but if this year’s Newfront pitch to advertisers is any indication, the company is leaning more heavily into exclusive content, as it seeks to bolster its advertising business.