original content production

Roku’s overall Q1 revenue for 2022 is up 28% year-over-year to $734 million – and more and more of the company’s growth is thanks to streaming. 88% of Roku’s Q1 revenue came from ad sales and content distribution, compared with 80% last quarter. But as streaming grows, so does the cost of original content production and hardware manufacturing.

The Roku Channel was born in 2017 as a licensed third-party content hub to woo audiences toward streaming. Then, the channel began courting original content in 2021. The wider the content distribution, “the more engagement we can drive with our advertisers and the more we can monetize and invest in content,” said Katina Papas Wachter, head of ad sales and strategy at The Roku Channel.