Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROKU) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 10 of 13

Charlie Collier : Sure. It’s a good question, Matt. We’re not seeing anything out of the ordinary. As you noted, it’s fourth quarter through third. So we’re only about a quarter into the upfront. But 1 way to think about Roku differently perhaps is that our upfront don’t front-load in fourth quarter the way traditional networks do, just given the timing of new fall premieres and how heavily others rely on fourth quarter for sports. So the scatter market has been challenged, but we’re also seeing some verticals, as I just mentioned, with some momentum and side of life. So that’s the best way to think about it. One thing I’ll say as it attributes to this team, Roku has only been in the upfront market for less than 5 years versus others who have been in it for 50-plus years.

So we’re excited about the runway ahead and the upfront market. And I do believe there’s a world where all media plans are going to start with streaming, and that day is coming soon, and it will favor Roku and its unique scale and assets.

Anthony Wood : In terms of your — Matt, you asked about branded TVs and anything specific in terms of the startup costs, et cetera. I mean, I don’t think we have anything really to add there. So I mean, all of our expenses are in our outlook.

Operator: The next question is coming from Nicolas Zangler of Stephens.

Nicholas Zangler : Focusing on the near-term weakness that we’re hearing about in M&E, obviously, many streaming services have pivoted as of late to adopt an EVOD offering. So still very highly incentivized to win viewership hours now as opposed to just subscription count. So just given this dynamic, do you anticipate M&E spend to strengthen meaningfully at some point in the midterm? Just as viewership hours become more of a priority? Just how would you frame up maybe this I guess, this near-term weakness in M&E versus your longer-term outlook?

Anthony Wood : Nick, this is Anthony. I’ll kick us off and then turn that over to Charlie. But yes, you’re right. We think that I mean to answer your question specifically over the not-too-distant future term. Streaming services are going to be focused increasingly on engagement, so they can drive advertising revenue. So if you — just to take a step back, think about our business, I mean, advertising is important to Roku, but advertising is important to our streaming partners as well, streaming service partners. I mean they — almost all of them have big and growing ad businesses. And the pressure we’re seeing in the ad market is affecting them, just like it’s affecting us, and that’s causing them to pull back on M&E spend in the short term.

But we know that M&E on Roku is super effective and a great way to spend marketing dollars. And the size of the — of our platform is unmatched. The scale and engagement on our platform is huge. And so I do think there’s — I’m bullish long term and midterm on M&E. But Charlie, do you want to maybe take that?

Charlie Collier : Yes. Thanks, Nick. I think you nailed it in your question. Longer term, as the ad industry recovers, we absolutely believe that M&E companies will shift their focus toward engagement because they’ll need to deliver for their own advertisers. So I know first-hand from my lab job, the importance and magnitude of Roku’s impact on every streamers engagement metrics. So Roku’s M&E tools are terrific for that goal for growing engagement. I’ll emphasize that our media literally think about it on the Roku media platform. It is the closest media to the viewing decision that the viewer makes, and we’re doing this scale. Again, 70 million active accounts approaching nearly of all streaming households, we believe that every M&E dollar spent on Roku is a highly effective dollar and particularly in the context that you shared in your question, Nick.

Page 10 of 13