Going after the lucrative heart of the TV ad sales business, Roku is promising to reach viewers during prime time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time) with The Roku Channel and other top channels on the Roku platform.
Streamers have long promised viewers they can watch whatever they want, whenever they want. And some advertisers are happy to reach consumers whenever they’re awake and watching TV.
But for advertisers that believe it’s important to deliver their message after dinner and before bed, but don’t want to pay broadcast and cable networks as their viewership shrinks, Roku has come up with its Primetime Reach Guarantee.
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In time for the upfront market, Roku says advertisers can pick a date and Roku will prioritize delivery of ads to unique households across the Roku Channel and other channels on the platform during primetime.
Roku said that in a pilot program with a financial services brand, Roku reached more TV households during the one-day flight during primetime than an average program on a top-5 cable networks.
Total household reach was 15% greater with Roku, helping the brand reach more potential customers, Roku said..
"This is a best-of-both-worlds solution to make brands unmissable,” said Kristina Shepard, co-head of US brand sales at Roku. “TV Streaming has long brought precision and measurement to the largest screen in the home. Now, marketers can launch campaigns knowing they will deliver meaningful reach and impact quickly, too.”
The Primetime Reach Guarantee must be bought from Roku directly or programmatically through Roku’s OneView platform. With 70 million active accounts, Roku says it now has the kind of scale that made cable popular with advertisers before cord-cutting eroded cable’s audience.