Roku: Original production is a new space for us and we will continue investing

Even though Roku was born as a service that licensed content, since they acquired Quibit in 2021, they entered the area of original content. For this year, during the NewFronts the company announced a robust list of original productions, such as the biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. “It is a new space for us, but we will continue to invest in it” explained Jon Goodstadt, Senior Global Sales Director of Advertising, Media and Entertainment at Roku, during his participation in the talk SVOD OTT and D2C Streaming Wars at Dataxis’ Nextv Series USA.

Marilyn Taylor, manager of Technical Solutions for the US and Latin America at Bitmovin; Matthew Graham, General Manager of Acorn TV at AMC Networks; Erick Opeka, Chief Strategic Officer at Cinedigm and Michael Ibrahim, Senior VP of Digital Product at FOX Corporation, also took part in the conversation. The moderator was Kirby Grines, founder, and CEO of 43Twenty.

Graham from Acorn TV commented that for the service it is indispensable to offer a great content experience. “We use data to provide the most satisfying content for the audience. We are producing 12 original shows per year, which align with our audience and maintain the connection. It is important to be consistent” he said.

According to Taylor from Bitmovin, it is crucial for any company that is launching a streaming service today to make sure they offer a great experience to consumers across all the platforms and devices. “People have great expectations: they don’t want buffering or latency” she added.

Graham expressed that a balanced portfolio makes sense. “You need to be diversified, invest in your own app, and also leverage on alliances,” he said.