The gray, rainy weather of an early March day was not enough to stop the joy from coming from a rented bungalow on the campus of the California State Polytechnic University.
There was a production set that was tucked into a tree-lined street and teeming with crew members. There is a film called "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" which features Daniel Radcliffe in the title role.
It was the last day of work for Mr. Radcliffe, and his co-star, Julianne Nicholson, stood in front of the camera to portray his mother. In the scene, Al tells her he just got a residency at Madison Square Garden. There was a 25-night engagement at the arena by Mr.Yankovic. She would like to know if he is eating enough food.
The film's co-writers said the script was ridiculous. He appeared excited about the whole experience, even though he wasn't revealing plot details. He said it was fun to have top-notch actors doing silly material. I can't believe we're going to do this.
The film is based on a company that has more than 63 million active accounts in the US. In the past year, Roku has moved into original programming, acquiring the library of the short-livedQuibi app and paying $97.8 million in cash for This Old House Ventures, the company behind the long- running home improvement show.
The second season of Kevin Hart's action-comedy show "Die Hart" and the odd home renovation show "Murder House Flip" have also been greenlit by the streaming service. It has signed deals with Martha Stewart and Jessica Alba, and is planning a live-captured performance from the West End of "Heathers: The Musical."
The company's boldest programming move is "Weird". The movie cost around $12 million to make. The film will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
There was no bidding war, but other parties were interested. Roku was the only company that put money in the bank. This movie is going to happen because of them.
The film is part of a campaign by the company to get people who use the device to watch more movies and TV shows for free on the channel. Keeping viewers on the platform longer is a way to bolster its advertising revenue for a business that has come to rely more heavily on ad spending and content distribution. The company's bottom line is affected by device sales. It's important to keep users on the channel.
Daily business updates The latest coverage of business, markets and the economy, sent by email each weekday.In an interview, David Eilenberg, head of originals, said that the company's strategy was to assure the creative community that when it takes on a new project, it will be willing to spend the money to support it properly.
He said the spending strategy was surprise and delight. "'Weird' is a good indicator of that, which is the sort of thing nobody knew they wanted until it happened." When you get one of those, you support it to the best of your ability, even though it is very difficult to commission.
At the end of July, when it released the trailer for "Weird" as part of its upfront presentation, the company said it resulted in $1 billion in commitments from the seven major advertising agency holding companies.
It is a difficult time for the company. The company pulled its full-year guidance because of the challenging advertising environment and lowered its third-quarter estimates to only 3 percent growth in total net revenues. According to the analyst firm MoffettNathanson, growth could reach 29 percent.
As it deals with the advertising downturn, the company has sought to assure investors that it won't be laying off employees. As the connected television market continues to grow, and consumers are increasingly interested in finding all their different streaming channels in one place, some analysts have lowered their price targets for the stock.
In a recent investor note, Moffett Nathanson described the challenges facing the company. The battle is on the connected TV side. It is up against almost every streaming platform. Its competitors include Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros., and Paramount Global.
The market structure is not an ideal one according to the firm.
The strategy for the head of the Roku Channel has always been to rely on licensing content with a lot of new originals in order to get the attention of consumers. The revival of ABC's "The Great American Baking Show" will be hosted by two comedians. The Great British Baking Show, which will be available on the Roku Channel at the end of this year, will be replaced by the new show.
According to reports, the annual amount the company spends on content is $1 billion, which is less than the amount Disney will spend on all of its divisions. Ryo didn't confirm its annual budget.
One of the things about ad-supported streaming is that if I watch one thing on the service, I'll still pay for it. You need that engagement to generate that volume that will allow you to support that advertising business.
Complicating matters is that its competitors are also partners. When it comes to new content, Mr. Eilenberg admits that his primary competitors are usually other ad-supported video on demand services. Tubi is a popular channel on the Roku platform, but it is also available on the Amazon Fire device. Later this month, Paramount+ will join the Roku Channel.
It's possible that Roku will be competing againstNetflix. What is the pitch when you face such a giant?
Mr. Eilenberg said that the fact that they aren't doing a lot of shows allows them to say that their show will have its day in the sun. There is only one slate of streaming services. The creators are going to be taken care of.
Mr.Yankovic thinks that way.
He thinks we are a big fish. We won't get lost in someone's lineup. We all are invested in having this succeed. We are all on the same team.
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