David Eilenberg de Roku
On the second day of the NewFronts of IAB event, Charlie Collier, president of Roku Media, said with enthusiasm that Roku is not doing battle in the streaming war, but rather “the streaming war takes place on our platform. We are the battleground.” He said Roku is seen like to a luxury hotel for brands and advertisers, while others only make up “a fourth. We are the complete branded resort.” He added that Roku makes sure a message “never gets lost” in this “disorderly” world. Allison Levy, VP of advertising sales, said that for the first time brands will be able to form part of Roku City, and the one to join first is McDonald’s. “Roku motorizes the streaming tour. Some 40 million homes spend time every month in the Roku City and 70 million active homes exist on that platform,” he said. Among the creatives who are top allies of Roku that presented themselves in the event were Cisely and Marel Saldaña (sisters of Zoey Saldaña), creators of the reality show Meet me in Paris, whose second season will be Meet me in Rome that will debut in 2024. Furthermore, they will announce a second season of the show Mamas en Español that will debut on Friday, May 12. David Eilenberg, head of content at Roku Media, said that Roku now uses 350 channels on the platform and has a reach of 100 million viewers. He recalled the success won by the movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, one of the Roku Originals starring Daniel Radcliffe. He said the Roku Originals have various focuses, such as the gastronomy programming with celebrities like Emeril and Martha Stewart and now, with the premiere of a new U.S. version of the British franchise entitled The Great American Baking Show, which debuts this Friday, May 5 and goes on to a second season at the start of 2024. Then there will be the contest shows dubbed Celebrity Family Cookoff created by Manolo Gonzalez Vergara (who will be the host) and Sofia Vergara, and Special Delivery. Another feature is the Spanish language and bilingual programming that Eilenberg says “is growing. One of the new shows being presented in Roku’s Latino Space is Carpe DM, directed byJuanpa Zunta, a Mexican influencer with over 80 million followers. Also announced was the launch of long-format stories for brands, with one of the first projects being the six-episode Side Hustler series, made for Ally by the Hello Sunshine production company. The event was closed by the musician and singer Charlie Puth.
