Roku will officially enter the original programming space on Streaming Day.
The streaming device maker will officially bow 30 of its rebranded Quibi originals on May 20. All 30 series, including Die Hart, Free Rayshawn and Reno 911, previously aired last year on Quibi, the now-defunct shortform streaming platform.
Roku acquired Quibi’s 75-show library in January in a deal that was estimated to be worth around $100 million. Quibi launched in April 2020 and was initially only available on mobile devices at a time when much of the country was sheltering at home amid the global pandemic. The service shut down six months later, with Roku rebranding its acquired library as Roku Originals in April.
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Sweta Patel, vp engagement growth marketing at Roku, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview this week that the decision to launch with recycled programming was an easy one as most of Roku’s 63 million users had not seen anything on Quibi.
Still to be determined is when Roku will premiere the remaining 45 Quibi originals, which include more than a dozen shows that were shot and completed but never released before the shortform platform imploded. Roku will make all episodes of all 30 launch series available May 20. “We’ve got 75 titles we have to launch, that’s going to take us to the end of the year as we slowly roll out the remaining 45 titles,” Patel said.
The exec also noted that Roku will monitor how the programming performs and make renewal and cancellation decisions based on internal metrics of the ad-supported content. With the originals all designed as “quick bites” to be viewed on the go, Roku will only slot ads between episodes.
Patel also noted Roku is open to returning some Quibi content as full-length series should something break through, although that seems to be a ways off given the company’s new entry into the scripted originals. “It doesn’t have to be shortform; it just has to be content that works for the AVOD model and for our audience. We’ll learn from what happens.”
Here’s a list of the Roku Originals that will be available May 20:
- #FreeRayshawn
- About Face
- Bad Ideas With Adam Devine
- Barkitechture
- Big Rad Wolf
- Blackballed
- Centerpiece
- Chrissy’s Court
- Cup of Joe
- Die Hart
- Dishmantled
- Dummy
- Fight Like a Girl
- Flipped
- The Fugitive
- Gayme Show
- Iron Sharpens Iron
- Last Looks
- Let’s Roll With Tony Greenhand
- Most Dangerous Game
- Murder House Flip
- Murder Unboxed
- Nightgowns
- Prodigy
- Punk’d
- Reno 911!
- Royalties
- Shape of Pasta
- Thanks a Million
- You Ain’t Got These
