Less and less a “neutral” operator of the biggest OTT device platform, Roku appears to be staffing up to produce original shows.
Among several LinkedIn job postings providing evidence: One seeks a “lead production attorney,” who will work on the company’s “expanding slate of original content.”
The hire will "serve as lead production attorney for Roku’s original episodic and feature length productions,” Roku said, and draft agreements “to hire writers, actors, directors and individual producers.”
The individual would be working with talent guilds and unions, crafting “production services agreements, below-the-line agreements including for department heads, location agreements, clearances, prop rental agreements, likeness releases and credit memos.”
Protocol first spotted this posting, but we found others that looked geared toward original content making, too, such as one seeking a “talent relations and marketing manager” who will be “the point person responsible for cultivating and maintaining relationships with talent, publicists, managers, agents and casting directors in the entertainment industry…”
Roku has aggressively built up its ad-supported Roku Channel over the last year. In one of its more recent deals, it paid an undisclosed sum to purchase rights to the originals shows produced by failed mobile-first startup Quibi. (Side note: Roku also acquired all the data on Quibi’s customers, according to Zatz Not Funny.)
Roku wouldn't be the only provider of a large OTT device platform building up original programming around AVOD. Amazon has been steadily adding originals to its ad-supported IMDb TV service. And Apple has added subscription platform Apple TV Plus to its Apple TV platform.
