Roku Now Incorporated into the FreeWheel Streaming Hub, Deepening Strategic Partnership to Power the Premium CTV Ecosystem
Roku's massive reach and FreeWheel's direct connections bring enhanced targeting, transparency, efficiency, measurement, and speed to the industry.
Today, FreeWheel, the leading global technology platform for the streaming advertising ecosystem, and Roku, the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S.*, announced a major expansion of their longstanding partnership, following strong results from the collaboration launched in 2024. With this strategic move, Roku establishes the FreeWheel Streaming Hub as an important platform for Roku Advertising, deepening the pair's connection and delivering greater value to mutual partners.
Roku's premium CTV supply can now be activated through the FreeWheel Streaming Hub with better demand signals, more transparency, and more efficient monetization. At the same time, this partnership creates greater scale for buyers to transact more efficiently with Roku inventory, with a direct path to the FreeWheel Advertiser Suite.
"At Roku, we want to create better outcomes for all of our advertisers and content partners, with more transparency and streamlined workflows," said Miles Fisher, Senior Director, Strategic Advertising Partnerships, Roku. "This collaboration with FreeWheel is a great opportunity to represent supply to buyers and deliver a more efficient, data-rich environment."
With this deeper collaboration, Roku can seamlessly manage direct-sold and programmatic campaigns and distribution inventory, as well as tap into demand via the FreeWheel Marketplace. Participating publishers have direct access, and for the first time, they can connect directly to Roku's supply in the FreeWheel Marketplace, through a standardized, Open Real-Time Bidding-based connection. Additional enhancements include direct access to the FreeWheel Curation Hub and Freewheel Buyer Cloud.
"The combination of Roku's scale and market leadership in CTV and FreeWheel's premium content and direct connections make this collaboration a game changer for the CTV ad marketplace," said Greg Bel, Vice President, Head of Supply, FreeWheel. "Our expanded partnership is a marked transformation, as Roku shifts from a demand partner to a full platform client, truly impacting our mutual partners by giving them the ease, speed, and precision they asked for."
"As one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies, NBCUniversal has long been focused on making premium video easier for advertisers to buy and measure," said Alison Levin, President of Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal. "Roku's large scale and this expanded partnership with FreeWheel creates more transparency and efficiency across the marketplace, ultimately driving better outcomes for both advertisers and publishers."
"As audience growth across streaming continues to accelerate, Warner Bros. Discovery is focused on maximizing the value of our premium storytelling across every platform while helping shape a more integrated and efficient premium video ecosystem," said Jill Steinhauser, Group Senior Vice President of Platform Monetization and Partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery. "This partnership between Roku and FreeWheel enhances our initiatives by giving advertisers greater access to streaming audiences at scale and drives more effective results for both advertisers and publishers."
*By hours streamed (Hypothesis Group: Dec 2024)
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel empowers all segments of streaming advertising ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit freewheel.com, and follow us on X and LinkedIn.
About Roku
Roku pioneered streaming on TV. We connect users to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers. Roku-made TVs, Roku TV™ models, Roku streaming players, and TV-related audio devices are available in various countries around the world through direct retail sales and/or licensing arrangements with TV OEM brands. Roku Smart Home products are sold exclusively in the United States. Roku also operates The Roku Channel, the home of free and premium entertainment with exclusive access to Roku Originals, and the #2 app on our platform in the U.S. by streaming hours. The Roku Channel is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Roku is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., U.S.A.
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Media Contacts
Sarah Saul
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Roku, Inc.
Doug Broad
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FreeWheel