Roku today is letting partners across the programmatic ecosystem buy using Roku Exchange, a suite of data and targeting solutions that buyers previously only had access to if they bought Roku inventory directly.
The move, which also includes new tech capabilities, signals a more open approach from the streamer, which has been more focused on reserving its most premium capabilities for direct buyers. Opening up to more demand would likely lead to more dollars flowing through Roku Exchange.
“Our goal is to support multiple ways of buying media. We are not a walled garden,” said Louqman Parampath, vice president of product management at Roku.
Now, buyers can use Roku Exchange solutions on Roku’s inventory, which includes the Roku channel and publishers monetized by Roku, bought via third-party adtech vendors and not only via direct deals.
In other words, previously, a buyer might only be able to target Roku inventory using The Trade Desk data segments, and wouldn’t have access to bespoke signals more applicable to Roku’s inventory.
This opens up more data signals to buyers, like Roku’s automatic content-recognition data, a rare and valuable signal that identifies which shows are playing on streaming television. Buyers can now access ACR data via deal IDs, a Roku spokesperson said.
In April’s NewFronts announcement, Roku said it was sharing more of its ACR data. Now, anyone can access this data via any demand-side platform, as long as it is connected with a supply-side platform that integrates with Roku Exchange.
“This is more supply-side tech,” Parampath said, as Roku Exchange connects via SSP partners. “This is a way in which all of the programmatic buyers get the same kind of capabilities that you would get if you bought directly through us.”
A change in approach
The embrace of open programmatic differs from Roku’s previous messaging, which was more about positioning the streamer as a hedged garden. Roku was pushing its own DSP as the best place to buy all connected TV, the company’s senior director of strategic advertising partners, Miles Fisher, told advertising podcast Next in Media in April 2023.