The gray, rainy weather in early March was nothing compared to the joy emanating from a rented bungalow on the campus of California State Polytechnic University in Pomona.
Accordion music wafted over a production set tucked away in a tree-lined alley and filled with crew members in Hawaiian shirts. Welcome to the set of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. An unconventional biopic of beloved parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic, starring Daniel Radcliffe.
It was the last day of filming for Mr. Radcliffe, and Julian Nicholson was standing in front of the camera, portraying Mr. Yankovic’s mother, who was more concerned about her son’s diet than his burgeoning career. In the scene, Al is calling to tell her that he has just landed a 25-night residency at Madison Square Garden. (Mr. Jankovic never actually signed her 25-night contract at the arena.) She wants to know if he’s eating enough bran.
“The script is kind of silly,” said Yankovic, the film’s co-writer. He was hesitant to reveal plot details, but seemed giddy about the whole experience. “I can’t believe we’re actually going to do this,” he said.
This movie exists because of Roku, a streaming media device company with over 63 million active accounts in the US. Last year, Roku moved into its own programming, acquired a library of his short-lived Quibi app, and paid $97.8 million in cash to replace the long-running home renovation This Old House, the company behind his show. I paid Ventures.
Roku Originals then turned the green-lit second season of Quibi content into a two-hour movie, including the canceled NBC show Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Kevin Hart’s action-comedy show Die Hart, and the quirky home renovation show. did. “Murderhouse Flip” Where an infamous crime scene turns into a glittery makeover. It also signed Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse and Jessica Alba for unscripted content and plans to broadcast a live-captured performance of Heathers: The Musical in London’s West End next month. doing.
“Weird” is the company’s most ambitious programming move. Produced by comedy studio Funny or Die, the film cost about $12 million to make. “Weird” will debut at his Toronto International Film Festival in September and will be released free on Roku in November.
“I wouldn’t say there was a bidding war,” Jankovic said with a laugh, adding that other parties were also interested. “Roku was the only company that issued checkbooks. Thanks to them, this movie is made.”
The film gives people who use their devices to access paid apps like Netflix and Disney+ time to peruse the free content currently available on the Roku Channel, which includes 40,000 movies and TV shows and 150 linear channels. It’s part of Roku’s effort to convince you to spend. Keeping viewers on the platform longer is a way to bolster advertising revenue for a business that has become more dependent on advertising spending and content delivery than device sales. contributes only 12% to Keeping users on your Roku channel is critical to its success.
Roku’s head of originals, David Eilenberg, said in an interview that the company’s strategy in this early stage of creating new content is that when Roku takes on a new project, it’s willing to spend money to support it. to the creative community. properly.
“The spending strategy has always been surprise and delight, not shock and awe,” he said. “‘Weird’ is a great indicator of that, and it’s like no one knew what they wanted until it existed. When I get one, I put my arms around it and support it to the best of my ability.”
Roku made headlines on Twitter when it released a trailer for “Weird” as part of its pre-sale presentation at the end of July. According to the company, this has landed him $1 billion deals for his next TV show from seven major advertising agency holding companies. Season.
But Roku’s expansion into the original product comes at a difficult time for the company. In its second-quarter earnings call last month, the company lowered its full-year guidance due to the challenging advertising environment, lowering its third-quarter estimate to just 3% growth in total net revenue. (Analyst firm Moffett Nathanson previously predicted growth for the quarter could reach 29%.)
The company is trying to assure investors it won’t lay off employees or change its business strategy to deal with the slowdown in advertising. But as the connected TV market continues to grow and consumers are increasingly interested in finding a variety of streaming channels all in one place, most analysts remain bullish about the company’s future (traditionally cable).
MoffettNathanson detailed the challenges facing the company in a recent investor note, calling Roku’s hurdle a “three-way war.” On the connected TV front, Roku is battling the likes of his Amazon and Alphabet. For viewers, it’s against “almost every streaming platform under the sun.” When it comes to advertising dollars, the likes of Netflix, Disney, Amazon, YouTube, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are competing.
“Obviously, this is not an ideal market structure,” the company said in a report.
Roku Channel head Rob Holmes’ strategy has been to rely primarily on licensed content with a little bit of new originals to keep consumers interested. recently announced the return of his ABC’s “The Great American Baking Show” with Ellie Kemper (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) and Zach Cherry (“Severance”).”) on the host. The show, which ends in 2023, is meant to accompany all of his 12 seasons of the long-running ‘The Great British Baking Show’, which will be available to watch on the Roku channel later this year.
The company reportedly spends $1 billion a year on content, well below Netflix’s $17 billion content budget and Disney’s $30 billion across all divisions in 2022 (Roku declined to confirm the annual budget).
Referring to subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Disney+, Holmes said, “One of the differences between ad-supported streaming and SVOD is that even if you watch one piece of content on SVOD, you don’t sign up for the month. and pay for it,” he said. “But from an AVOD perspective” — it’s ad video on his demand — “you need that engagement to generate the volume that can support that ad business.”
Complicating matters is the fact that Roku’s competitors are also Roku’s partners. Eilenberg acknowledged that other ad-VOD services such as Amazon’s Freevee, Fox’s Tubi and Paramount’s Pluto are often the main competitors when pursuing new content. But there is a big overlap. For example, the Roku channel is available on Amazon Fire devices, while Tubi is a popular channel on Roku. Paramount+ will be joining the Roku Channel later this month.
But Roku could also compete with Netflix. Even though it’s been taken down a bit recently, what’s your pitch when facing such a behemoth?
“It’s the fact that we don’t actually do countless shows that allows us to confidently say to creators, ‘Your show will have its day in the sun. said Eilenberg. “He’s the only one on the Roku Originals slate. Creators will be attending.”
Mr. Jankovic certainly feels that way.
“I think we’re kind of like — what are you saying? — big fish,” he said. “You can’t get lost in someone’s line-up. They’re very invested in making this successful, as we all are. It’s great to have us all on the same team.”