Roku struck a deal with creator company Jellysmack to launch new content featuring 17 popular YouTube and TikTok creators like Brad Mondo, Lauren Riihimaki (LaurDIY), Emmy Cho (Emmymade), Karina Garcia and more. The company announced yesterday that it’s launching two free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, “Hello Inspo” and “Mysteria,” to The Roku Channel’s Live TV Guide.

“Hello Inspo” will give viewers access to all their favorite lifestyle, beauty and fashion content creators, from room makeovers and recipes to DIYs, style hacks and makeup tutorials. In addition to the names mentioned above, other influencers featured on this channel include Liz Fenwick, HeXtian, Hellthy JunkFood, Smitha Deepak and Josh Elkin.

“Mysteria” is a new true crime channel that will include content from Danelle Hallan, Stephanie Soo, Christina Randall, True Crime Recaps, Killer Bites, Dr. Todd Grande, John Lordan (LordanArts) and Brooke Makenna. Viewers can watch these creators talk about the most haunting crimes as well as bone-chilling unsolved mysteries.

Roku’s partnership with Jellysmack is notable as it brings creator programming — a widely popular form of content — to ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD), which also continues to rise in popularity. In the fourth quarter, the Roku Channel reached U.S. households with approximately 100 million viewers, the company reported.

“We’re delighted to partner with Jellysmack as the company’s first-ever FAST partner. We are thrilled to provide our audience with content featuring some of today’s most popular digital creators,” said Ashley Hovey, Head of The Roku Channel, AVOD, in a statement. “The addition of these new channels to our Live TV Guide is the latest example of how we aim to provide our users with access to popular entertainment options for free.”

While Jellysmack has launched other video content series, this will be the first time it has released long-form TV content on a FAST service. In July 2022, the company partnered with Pinterest to launch five short video series on the platform. These weekly episodes on Pinterest feature some of the same creators in Roku’s new FAST channels, such as Cho, Garcia, Riihimaki and Fenwick.

“Our partnership with Roku is about finding big opportunities for creators and their content,” added Stefanie Schwartz, Jellysmack’s Head of Platform Partnerships. “The Roku Channel’s linear offering is the #1 FAST service on Roku, America’s #1 TV streaming platform, giving our creators the ability to reach a large and growing audience. We’re delighted to bring Roku top creators – at scale.”

Jellysmack’s creator program launched in 2019 and uses AI technology to help boost creators and distribute their content to various platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook and more. According to the company, the program has helped hundreds of top creators, including MrBeast, Bailey Sarian, The Try Guys and PewDiePie.

The new FAST channels join the Roku Channel’s vast content lineup, including 80,000+ free movies and programs and over 300 free live TV channels. Recently, Roku inked a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to add hundreds of free titles from HBO, HBO Max, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, and TLC, among others.

Free, ad-supported creator content comes to The Roku Channel by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/01/the-roku-channel-free-ad-supported-creator-content/