Free Streaming TV Trends with Roku: The virtuous cycle driving FAST’s growth

As part of Wurl’s Free Streaming TV Trends interview series, we sat down with John Rogers, Director, Global Programmatic Partnerships at Roku, to discuss how free ad-supported streaming is evolving – and what’s driving its next phase of growth.

For Rogers, one of the most powerful shifts taking shape in free ad-supported streaming is addressability. “When I was a kid, my neighbor and I could be watching the same show and we would always get the same ad,” he says. “Now, through FAST, we could be watching the same show and we get different ads based on our demographic data, user information, anything that we have on our platform.” As viewership continues to scale, that precision is helping advertisers reach broadcast-like levels of unduplicated reach and frequency – but in a far more efficient way.

Rogers also points to outcomes-based advertising as a key unlock for bringing more advertisers into the space. “If you start to move from branding into outcomes and more results-based advertising, you really start to move advertisers through the entire funnel,” he says. Capabilities like shoppability and performance measurement are allowing TV to behave more like digital, while still delivering impact on the biggest screen in the home.

There is a virtuous cycle that the more that we can monetize on a platform, the better the content can be. And then the better the content is, the more people come, so that you can monetize and keep growing that way.”

John Rogers

Director, Global Programmatic Partnerships
Roku

Free Streaming TV Trends is a Wurl original video series featuring short-form conversations with industry leaders exploring what’s driving the future of free ad-supported streaming television. Each episode dives into the ideas, innovations, and strategies shaping the FAST ecosystem.

Transcript

Tori: Hi, John. Thanks so much for being here.

John: Great. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Tori: I would love to start with knowing what are you currently streaming?

John: What am I streaming? I do enjoy Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. On the Roku channel, am a huge Breaking Bad fan, which is more like comfort food. Probably my top two.

Tori: That’s a great rewatch.

Tori: We are indeed here to talk about free ad-supported streaming TV. So I’m curious to hear what excites you about FAST and the opportunity there.

John: It is interesting seeing sort of the arc of how free television has evolved, right? Like even when I was a kid, it was just broadcast, which is in fact free or was free. Still is.

And streaming it is not that different. But what’s been exciting about it is the explosion of content, then also the realization of first party data across that ad inventory.

When I was a kid, my neighbor and I could be watching the same show and we would always get the same ad. Now, through FAST, we could be watching the same show and we get different ads based on our demographic data, user information, anything that we have on our platform. So that realization of addressability has been really interesting and exciting for me. And now that the user numbers are going way up, people are watching it more and more often, you’re starting to really get to that broadcast goal of unduplicated reach and frequency. You’re able to target people and really deliver ad campaigns in an efficient way.

Tori: That’s great. Yeah, we usually talk about FAST as sort of the best of both worlds with streaming. You have the biggest screen in the home, living room glass, married with the power of digital.

I’m curious, what innovations are you seeing in FAST that excite you? What do you think it’ll take to bring more advertisers into the space and really move the industry forward?

John: Sure, the most interesting and most exciting is really the target of outcomes and shopability within ads. So if you start to move from branding into outcomes and more results-based advertising, you really start to move advertisers through the entire funnel, now we’re starting to see that in TV on the biggest screen in the house. And that’s really, to me, is one of the most exciting things.

Tori: And how about challenges or hurdles? Anything that you’re hearing consistently that you think really needs to be overcome?

John: One of the most – and it’s been like this for a while – is the digital education of the linear TV buyer.

For us that live in digital every day and understand what FAST is and understand all the mechanisms and how it all works together, it is for us every day. For a linear buyer and for broadcast TV, there’s still a comfort level around the quality of the inventory and all the different execution methods. So that does continue to be an interesting challenge, although those dollars are certainly coming across.

Tori: Last question here for you, John. What is the importance of content in helping publishers capture and retain viewers, in your opinion?

John: I think it’s critical. That is the one thing that’s going to get people to continue to come back. There is a virtuous cycle that the more that we can monetize on a platform, the better the content can be. And then the better the content is, the more people come, so that you can monetize and keep growing that way. Making it discoverable – AI mechanisms to make sure that you’re able to recommend the content most effectively to users is going to be critically important. There’s so much content out there now. It’s almost as much about recommendation and creating that virtual cycle as possible.

Tori: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time. Thank you.

John: Great. Awesome. Thank you.