The Walt Disney Co. on Thursday launched its much-anticipated ad-supported iteration of Disney Plus with more than 100 advertising partners offering support.
One key entity not backing the new discounted platform? Roku.
As detailed on this Disney Plus help page, Roku users are unable to sign up or play the $7.99-a-month partially ad-supported service, or the various Disney bundles in which it's included.
Disney had no comment for Next TV's inquiry for comment and insight. However, a source familiar with Disney's negotiations said the company is still trying to work out an ad-revenue-sharing deal with Roku that is “fair and advantageous to both parties.”
Disney Plus with ads is also isn't supported by desktop computers running Microsoft Windows at launch.
Roku is the top TVOS in North America, with one in three smart TVs sold in the U.S. powered by its software interface.
Notably, in the “monetization overview” Roku provides to developers, the company says it takes a 20% share of "transactional" revenue — that is, subscriptions and in-app purchases.
For ad-supported channels, partners must agree to an “inventory split” with Roku, “whereby the channel sets up its own ad server and must send 30% of inventory to Roku. Roku retains 100% of revenue from this inventory (but is under no obligation to fill it). The publisher fully controls the remaining 70%, and keeps 100% of the revenue associated with its share of inventory.”
For its part, Netflix hoisted its own discounted ad-supported tier last month, but not with support from Apple TV 4K devices. ▪️
