Roku Introduces Direct Publisher

Roku, Inc. today announced a major update to the Roku® Publishing Platform allowing content owners to quickly reach its 10+ million households¹. Content owners can now use a new solution called Roku Direct Publisher to launch streaming channels without entering a single line of code. With a few simple steps, including providing a feed, content owners can publish and automatically participate in search and discovery experiences in regions where available on Roku devices. Newly released channels built with Roku Direct Publisher include Mashable, Rolling Stone and Us Weekly among others, all of which can be found in the Roku Channel Store. Roku Direct Publisher is also supported by top third-party OVPs, including Brightcove, JW Player, Kaltura and Ooyala.

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“Building streaming applications typically involves significant time, development resources and costs in order for publishers to reach and engage TV viewers effectively. With the launch of Roku Direct Publisher, we are empowering content owners to be able to get on the Roku platform quickly, develop an audience and drive monetisation,” said Bill Shapiro, director of product management for the Roku OS. “It’s a great solution for content owners and will also result in a lot of new and interesting channels for viewers.”

Roku’s unbiased search, which already includes more than 100 channels in the US, is now open to all content publishers on the Roku Platform. Content owners who use Roku Direct Publisher will have their content automatically included in Roku Search and My Feed in regions where available.

The Roku Publishing Platform now also includes performance dashboards for each channel that provide the content owner with detailed metrics, such as the streaming minutes for the channel, number of installs, uninstalls and more. Content owners who use Roku Direct Publisher will also have access to metrics on individual video performance.

Availability

The Roku Publishing Platform is open to content owners and developers from around the world. Roku Direct Publisher is available now at developer.roku.com/publish along with the Roku SDK and XML programming framework for developing customised channels.

About Roku, Inc.

Roku pioneered streaming for the TV and aspires to power every TV in the world. As of June 2016 the Roku OS powered TV streaming for 10+ million monthly active accounts. Roku is known for streaming innovation and high customer engagement, offering content providers and video advertisers the best way to reach streaming audiences. Roku customers streamed 4 billion hours of video and music in the first six months of 2016 as compared to 5.5 billion hours in all of 2015. Roku streaming players and Roku TV models are available in 10 countries through direct retail sales and licensing arrangements with TV OEMs and service operators. The company was founded by Anthony Wood, inventor of the DVR. Roku is privately held and headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif. U.S.A.

¹ Roku uses “monthly active accounts” as a proxy for “households.”

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Contact information

Roku, Inc.
Mike Duin, +1 408 915 5038
mduin@roku.com