Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get into Roku TV Channels as a way to increase/supplement my ad income from my mobile apps.  I'd like to check that it is possible to generate an income from ads with Roku TV.   I understand that it is hard to meet the criteria for Roku ads and I also understand that Baronsmedia, who supply ads for Roku TV, have also got criteria which is difficult to meet.

I'd be very grateful if you could let me know if it is possible to generate an income from ads with Roku TV, and who you use to do so. I thought I'd start off with the Direct Publisher route to begin with as it is easier.  Any thoughts about this are gratefully received.

I appreciate your time

It's a loaded & sorta private question, however I'll give a shot at answering.  Yes, you can make money from Ads on Roku. IMHO the criteria, is lower than you're suggesting. I don't think you need to meet numerous standards with some agencies. I believe for Roku's RAF (internal ad server dept) it's something only like you don't get paid until the Quarter AFTER you make $100, or something like that. Which one could expect to make within a reasonable amount of time (weeks or months, depending on viewership numbers).


However, 'How much can one expect to make?' is a different question. This is where it gets a bit private & sensitive to us all, I don't think we ever discuss #'s here. I'll say that in my experience, it's low. Penny's on the dollar imho. When you factor in the time spent coding, creating the logo's & images, uploading content, and money spent on video hosting, I don't believe it'll pay off for you. Even putting that aside it still isn't alot of money, so view it as a hobby or side income.

Also, something you said is a bit unclear, you say you built a mobile app, yet are looking to use DP?  Is the app a video only product?  People do build & run ads on games for Roku, but you can't build games with DP.

Thank you, 37mediagroup. I am grateful for your insights.
Just to be clear, I really didn't want anyone to reveal their income. 
Regarding apps, I was just giving my general situation for a bit of background about me.

Any other thoughts are appreciated.

With a Direct Publisher channel you are allowed to provide a single ad tag in your Roku Developer Account, the ad timing is preset by Roku, and you need to operate your own ad server (at least a few hundred dollars per month, typically more) to obtain ads from multiple sources in order to get a decent overall fill rate. If you are not running your own ad server and you are using a single ad tag for a Direct Publisher channel, then you are leaving a lot of money on the table, as the fill rates from any single ad provider are usually somewhat low.

With an SDK channel you can run ads from multiple ad providers simultaneously, allowing you to have a better chance to fill all of your available ad inventory. SDK allows to you have greater control over ad timing - when the ads start to play, min and max times between ads, and so on.

Ads often pay out less than a penny per ad play, for example 0.6c to 1.2c per ad play ($6 to $12 CPM), possibly more if you operate your own ad server. If you can get an ad account with Roku, it's been my experience that they will pay towards the high end of that range, or slightly higher. Barons pays more towards the middle of that range, but they're a bit easier to get an account with and (at least currently, for me) they fill much better than Roku does. The most successful devs I'm familiar with who are monetizing with ads will run dozens of Roku channels at the same time, dropping the less profitable channels and adding new channels every few months. With SDK channels, or with Direct Publisher channels using an external ad server, you will typically have multiple ad sources in a channel, configured in a "waterfall" so that if the first ad source does not fill an available ad, the remaining ad sources in the list can be automatically queried until an ad is filled, or until you run out of ad sources in your list.

I believe that the reason why it's difficult to get started with Barons & Roku is that it's expensive for them to set up ads for each new Roku channel, to monitor the performance of the channel, to generate the daily or monthly revenue reports, and to do the bookkeeping required to issue payments. They want to make sure that the channels that they work with will generate enough revenue to offset all of their one-time & recurring costs.

Hope that helped!

Thanks.  I really appreciate your detailed response. There is some real food for thought in your post.

Most appreciated!

The minimum threshold to receive ad tags from Barons is by either having 100 Ratings on your ROKU channel OR 1k opportunities a day on your ROKU channel. The minimum threshold has been put in place by the Advertisers we work with. However, BaronsMedia does have some advertisers willing to work with channels under 100 ratings its just best practice to get your channel to the minimum threshold so you can maximize your channels revenue expectations. Having the minimum requirements allows your channel full access to Barons many advertising opportunities. 

Recently Barons added a major ad agency to our arsenal of advertisers. Today Barons works with all the major DSP's in addition to the major agencies and direct clients creating a formidable advertising platform for your CTV channel.

Please call me directly with any questions or concerns at 818-290-7978 or email me directly at jim@baronsmedia.com. We would love to answer all your questions and concerns.  

OddScott wrote:

With a Direct Publisher channel you are allowed to provide a single ad tag in your Roku Developer Account, the ad timing is preset by Roku, and you need to operate your own ad server (at least a few hundred dollars per month, typically more) to obtain ads from multiple sources in order to get a decent overall fill rate. If you are not running your own ad server and you are using a single ad tag for a Direct Publisher channel, then you are leaving a lot of money on the table, as the fill rates from any single ad provider are usually somewhat low.

With an SDK channel you can run ads from multiple ad providers simultaneously, allowing you to have a better chance to fill all of your available ad inventory. SDK allows to you have greater control over ad timing - when the ads start to play, min and max times between ads, and so on.

Ads often pay out less than a penny per ad play, for example 0.6c to 1.2c per ad play ($6 to $12 CPM), possibly more if you operate your own ad server. If you can get an ad account with Roku, it's been my experience that they will pay towards the high end of that range, or slightly higher. Barons pays more towards the middle of that range, but they're a bit easier to get an account with and (at least currently, for me) they fill much better than Roku does. The most successful devs I'm familiar with who are monetizing with ads will run dozens of Roku channels at the same time, dropping the less profitable channels and adding new channels every few months. With SDK channels, or with Direct Publisher channels using an external ad server, you will typically have multiple ad sources in a channel, configured in a "waterfall" so that if the first ad source does not fill an available ad, the remaining ad sources in the list can be automatically queried until an ad is filled, or until you run out of ad sources in your list.

I believe that the reason why it's difficult to get started with Barons & Roku is that it's expensive for them to set up ads for each new Roku channel, to monitor the performance of the channel, to generate the daily or monthly revenue reports, and to do the bookkeeping required to issue payments. They want to make sure that the channels that they work with will generate enough revenue to offset all of their one-time & recurring costs.

Hope that helped!

Instant rocks!  
Scott is right...you need to have several ad-servers in order to get a fill rate that will pay off these days.  
Have ya seen the amount of "just added" channels these days?  And did you know a new channel might only stay on the Just Added list for a few days?  That means your newly published channel is likely to fall into obscurity -- unless that is, you plan on doing adverts to drive users to it.  
(Note, you're also competing with Roku's own channel -- which I have to say is darn kick@#$%^&&.)  
On a personal note -- I'm happy that I started publishing years ago, and grabbed a big subscriber base -- otherwise putting the time into the production of a new channel would be a complete financial disaster.