Brands looking to buy Roku’s original content channel programmatically will no longer be able to do so through third-party platforms. Moving forward, Roku Channel will be available to be purchased programmatically only through the streamer's own demand-side platform.
This comes as the streaming giant works to make its original content offering more attractive to advertisers: it acquired now defunct Quibi’s programming catalog as well as the library of “This Old House.” By limiting the ability for brands to buy inventory in the channel outside of Roku, the company is looking to leverage and differentiate its OneView demand-side platform, which was born out of it acquisition of Dataxu. Roku inventory from its other programming partners will still be available to be bought through third-party DSPs.
Roku has also beefed up its programmatic offering through the recent acquisition of Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising measurement unit, which will allow OneView to provide Nielsen reach and frequency reporting by age and gender across linear TV, streaming TV, desktop and mobile. This means upfront advertisers in OneView will get to see where audiences overlap across devices, channels and publishers on their plan, says Louqman Parampath, VP, product management, Roku.