Thursday, April 28, 2016

Viacom Extends Its Leadership in Advanced Advertising with First-of-Its-Kind Roku Partnership

Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA) and Roku Inc. today announced a partnership that enables Viacom to utilize aggregated audience insights from Roku to deliver targeted advertising on the Roku platform! This first-of-its-kind partnership between an over-the-top (OTT) platform and programmer is the latest illustration of the power of OTT advertising, and expands Viacom's addressable capabilities to the Roku Platform.


"Viacom's unique partnership with Roku extends our game-changing ecosystem, bringing targeted advertising at scale in a way that – until now – was not available in the premium television environment," said Kern Schireson, EVP Data Strategy & Consumer Intelligence, Viacom. "With this partnership, we can deliver more relevant messages to Roku consumers for products and services that interest them. This is the first time dynamic, 1:1 advertising will be possible as part of a larger linear TV buy. Advertising experiences like this are more impactful for both consumers and marketers."


Viacom will be the first programmer to leverage aggregate data from Roku to deliver messages to custom audience segments on the Roku platform. The effort is an extension of Viacom's proven leadership in advanced advertising, whose main objective is to bring advanced digital advertising capabilities to TV platforms. Roku boasts a highly engaged audience. In 2015, Roku users streamed 5.5 billion hours of content.

"The beauty of the Roku platform is that it offers full screen, 100% viewable video for advertisers, while also enabling all the targeting, interactivity and measurement of digital," said Scott Rosenberg, VP of Advertising, Roku. "We're committed to helping our publishers more effectively monetize in OTT. As a clear leader in advanced TV advertising, Viacom was a natural partner. Partnerships like this also help ensure the continued growth and vibrancy of free, ad-supported programming for Roku consumers."

About Viacom

Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling television programs, motion pictures, short-form content, apps, games, consumer products, social media experiences, and other entertainment content for audiences in 180 countries. Viacom's media networks, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., Channel 5 (UK), Logo, Nicktoons, TeenNick and Paramount Channel, reach over 3.5 billion cumulative television subscribers worldwide. Paramount Pictures is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment.

For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com. Keep up with Viacom news by following Viacom's blog at blog.viacom.com and Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/viacom.

About Roku Inc.

Roku is the creator of a popular streaming platform for delivering entertainment to the TV. Roku streaming players and the Roku Streaming Stick® are sold through major retailers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, Mexico and France. Roku licenses a reference design and operating system to TV manufacturers to create co-branded Roku TV models. Under the Roku Powered™ program, Roku licenses its streaming platform to pay TV providers around the world who want to use the Internet to deliver entertainment services through streaming players. Roku was founded by Anthony Wood, inventor of the DVR. Roku is privately held and headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif.

Roku is a registered trademark of Roku, Inc. in the U.S. and in other countries.
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