Roku’s originals strategy set to focus on food, home, comedy and sports
CONTENT CANADA: After entering the original programming space with a variety of offerings over the past two years, The Roku Channel’s strategy is crystallising around culinary, home, scripted comedies and sports-adjacent programming, according to David Eilenberg, head of content, Roku Meda.
David Eilenberg
Speaking at C21’s Content Canada on Wednesday, the former ITV America exec said the AVoD and FAST service, which sits within the broader Roku streaming ecosystem, is entering the “next stage” of its commissioning strategy after feedback from the first raft of originals.
“[Roku’s originals have] run the gamut from everything from The Great American Baking Show to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, so we’ve had a fun time getting those booted up. That said, as we’re pivoting toward the next stage of how we’re approaching originals, we’ve really started to concentrate on some core categories.”
In addition to doubling down on cooking and home-related programming, Roku is also delving deeper into the sports space in its bid to build an original content strategy around some of the sports rights it has started to pick up, including Major League Baseball and electric-car motorsport championship Formula E.
The company has greenlit sports documentaries and talk shows and is continuing to experiment with content that will work for its viewer base, which spans more than 80 million active accounts globally.
“[Sports] is an area where there’s just so much energy from both viewers and advertisers, so we’re trying to find a path for ourselves in that realm,” said Eilenberg.
The live sports space – and the original programming that is being commissioned around it – is a vibrant space, said Eilenberg, and will continue to be so as more streamers vie for packages of live sports rights.
“Right now, everybody needs to find an identity in sports, and we think we’re doing the right thing, which is to start as a platform but then also have some things that are bespoke,” he noted of Roku’s strategy.
In terms of when Roku typically looks to make development and greenlight decisions during the year, Eilenberg said his teams commission shows year-round “as opportunities come in.” It does, however, present its upcoming slate at the Newfronts in May, so it needs to have its upcoming slate solidified by that point.
New shows announced at the IAB NewFront in early May include Celebrity Family Cook Off executive produced by Sofia Vergara, Carpe DM with Juanpa led by social media star Juanpa Zurita and docuseries Side Hustlers produced by Hello Sunshine. The Roku Channel also renewed The Great American Baking Show and Honest Renovations, among others.
“The other thing about being an ad-supported streaming service is that we’re really thinking about the next 12 to 18 months. Some of the SVoDs programme much further out – you can talk to the DIsney+’s of the world and they know what they’re putting on the service in 2027 – but we can’t really do that. We’re more responsive to advertiser needs, so we tend to still run on a 12-to-18-month cycle.”
