The Roku Channel is getting into programming for children. The Company just announced that it has planned to show kids and family movies alongside other content. There will also be free, ad-supported content and subscriptions. Other than the launching of the “Kids and Family” sections on the channel, Roku is also introducing parental control features so that parents can watch over what their kids are doing and watching.
The parental control features are useful for those families who don’t want their kids to go on HBO or Cinemax. However, they will be a hindrance for the parents when they want to watch their shows on the channel because of the lack of user profiles. Meanwhile, the kids section won’t have any original content. Instead, it will promote streaming content from other channels and digital creators. There will also be content for kids from the paid family subscription.
At the launch, the Kids and family section will have over 7,000 free TV episodes and movies from 20 partners. The partners include DHX Media, Happy Kids TV, Mattel, Lionsgate, pocket.watch, Moonbug, and Allspark (a Hasbro Company). This will also introduce many awesome characters to the channel, like Care Bears, Leapfrog, Little Baby Bum, My Little Pony, Super Mario Brothers, Rev and Roll, The Cat in the Hat, Thomas & Friends and more.
All this content will be mixed with live streams from XUMO-power partners Ameba, BatteryPop, Kids Genius, pocket.watch, and Moonbug. There will also be five episodes of Ryan’s World by pocket.watch present.
There is also new content for kids from services, like CONtv, Dove Channel, HBO, Starz or Up Faith, Hopster, NOGGIN, and Blue Ant Media’s ZooMoo. This will also give access to popular kids’ brands, like Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol, Dora the Explorer, Bubble Guppies and friendly movies, like Muppets Take Manhattan, Elmo in Groucholand and many more.
In total, around 30 partners are present in the Kids and family section. However, the top sources of kids’ shows, like Hulu and Netflix aren’t present. Although Netflix is the most popular video platform, it collects user’s data and wants own user experience.
Roku confirms that it will collect “non-user level data”, to see which programs are popular. However, unlike other services, it won’t target individual kids, target for ads or make recommendations. However, the Kids section is a bit similar to Netflix kids’ layout. The family section is organized according to the age, character, and theme. There will also be lesser ads than elsewhere on the Channel.
Roku’s VP of Programming, Rob Holmes states, “For the Roku Channel, we have around half of the advertising time as compared to ad-supported linear TV. Therefore, it is a light load. However, we want to, further minimize the advertising time in the Kids and Family section. Therefore, we are taking it down to 40% of the linear TV.” He also adds that the advertisements are kid-friendly and eye-catching.
Roku will only use the ad revenue method to monetize the new section. The Company informs that the premium kids content will be available for existing subscribers only.
There are also other major developments on the Roku Channel, along with this launch. The Roku channel has become one of Roku’s top channels and a big selling point for their devices.
The initial launch of Roku in 2017 focused just on free movies. However, now the company has expanded to offer news, TV shows, sports, and other entertainment offerings. There are also paid subscriptions from popular networks, like EPIX, Starz, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and others.
Roku closed its second quarter at 30.5 million accounts. This adds the revenue to $250.1 million. The company’s platform business is the primary method of income generation. It reached around $167.7 million in the quarter.
The Roku Channel update arrived on 19th August in the States. It is available on all Roku devices, the Roku mobile app, the internet, and a few Samsung smart TVs.
