Roku reported a “solid rebound” in video ad revenues in its Q3 financial report, fuelled by significant year-on-year growth in viewing. Roku, which owns CTV software and hardware as well as its own streaming service The Roku Channel, said that streaming hours in Q3 26.7 billion, up 4.9 billion hours year-on-year. The number of active accounts using Roku meanwhile reached 75.8 million, up 2.3 million from the previous quarter.
Platform revenues, which cover content distribution and advertising, reached $787 million, up 18 percent year-on-year. While the overall TV ad market was tough during the quarter, Roku said it saw “continued signs of rebound”, with year-on-year growth in video ad revenues outperforming both the overall ad market and the linear TV ad market in the US.
Roku said that part of this growth in ad revenue has been driven by diversification of demand sources of its advertisers, and expansion of partnerships.
“We are now integrated with 30+ programmatic partners, and spending on the Roku platform through automated third-party demand sources grew meaningfully YoY in Q3,” said CEO and founder Anthony Wood and CFO Dan Jedda in a joint letter to shareholders. “This is a result of our ability to tap into new budgets from existing advertisers while growing the number of new advertisers, including SMBs (small- and medium-sized businesses).”
Wood and Jedda said they expect a similar year-on-year growth rate for video ads in Q4, though they added that they “remain cautious amid an uncertain macro environment and an uneven ad market recovery”.
