Roku Gains On Adding 23 Quibi Shows In Pursuit Of Fresh Content By Investing.com

By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Roku stock (NASDAQ:) stock rose 2.2% Monday after the company said 23 original shows will premiere on its channel four days from now.

The lineup features four all-new premieres, available exclusively on The Roku Channel. The latest addition is in line with the platform’s strategy of building ad-supported content.

Much of the content is from the now-defunct streaming service Quibi. Roku, which also sells streaming players and its own smart TV, had acquired that content in January including more than 75 shows. It debuted 30 of them in May.

Never-before-seen series like “Eye Candy,” “Squeaky Clean,” season two of “Thanks a Million,” and “What Happens in Hollywood,” will form part of the Friday launch. Multi-Emmy nominated “Mapleworth Murders” will also make its debut on The Roku Channel.

Roku has been trying to establish an ad-supported video-on-demand service. It licenses content from other media companies and monetizes it by streaming ads along with programming.

The company last week reported its second-quarter results. Even as Roku grew its active accounts by 1.5 million to close the quarter with 55.1 million, the platform had to take a hit on the number of hours users streamed programming.

After a year of the pandemic when most stayed home and binge watched, online consumption came off with malls and theatres opening and people choosing to step outside.

Users streamed 17.4 billion hours in the second quarter compared to 18.3 billion in the March quarter.

Average revenue per user rose on both sequential and year-on-year basis. It was $36.46, up 46% year-on-year.

Total net revenue grew 81% year-over-year to $645 million as the company was able to monetize more than double last time’s video ad impressions and more media companies used its tools to grow their direct-to-consumer services. Revenue topped the analysts’ expectation of $618.82 million.

Adjusted earnings per share of 52 cents was higher than the estimated 12 cents.

Roku expects third-quarter total net revenue of $680 million and adjusted earnings at $65 million at their respective midpoints.