At Roku, we know that great TV must authentically represent the diversity of our streamers, including for women and girls on screen. That's why it’s our responsibility to elevate underrepresented voices across the streamer’s journey. As the front door to all TV streaming, we want each streamer to feel at home as soon as they enter the Roku Experience.
In honor of Women’s History Month, here’s a look at how Roku is elevating the voices and contributions of women and girls across our platform:
Discover more with Women’s Voices Zone
With so much great content out there, discovery has long been a pain point for viewers. Streaming audiences spend 10 minutes on average deciding what to watch, causing one in five streamers to give up and do something else.¹
We introduced Roku Zones to help streamers easily find content that aligns with their interest, and we are happy to offer several curated Inclusion Zones that make it easier to discover shows, movies and sports content focused on women. Women’s Voices Zone is a hub for female-led entertainment, curated by Roku’s Inclusion teams and employee resource groups.
Roku can also work with brands to surround other female content-led experiences within The Roku Channel. These playlists can feature female athletes, leading ladies, Galentines, and so much more.
“Most viewers spend nearly 11 minutes deciding what to watch. Roku’s Zones help simplify content discovery and navigation for streamers,” says Kristina Shepard, VP of global advertising sales and partnerships at Roku. “This Women’s History Month, we’re proud to delight streamers with new women-led programming and our curated Women’s Voices Zone.”
Tune in with the Women’s Sports Zone
Thirty percent of sports fans are watching more women’s sports than in the previous five years, according to Roku data,² and 85% said it’s important for women’s sports to continue gaining popularity. Yet there’s a discovery issue, 18% of U.S. fans say they have a hard time accessing live women’s sports matches.³
Introduced last year, the Women’s Sports Zone pulls together a range of women’s sporting events and adjacent content, such as sports documentaries and movies.
Coming off the heels of a record-setting women’s regular season basketball game last week,⁴ we expect this month the women’s NCAA tournament will reach new heights. The women’s NCAA final between Louisiana State University and Iowa drew 9.9 million viewers,⁵ making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history. According to Roku data, in addition to growth throughout the 2023 tournament, the Women’s Championship game also saw a stunning +93% increase in traditional TV reach since last year’s final.⁶
“Women's sports receive less than 10% of the media coverage and less than 1% of the sponsorship dollars.⁷ Advertising in a less crowded space can help brands make a much larger impact than they can in many tier 1 sports,”⁸ says Andrea Brimmer, CMO at Ally Financial.
In an increasingly fragmented sports viewing landscape, we’re excited to continue to accelerate viewership by aiding streamers in finding NCAA tournament games through both our Women’s Sports Zone, and College Basketball Zone.
“Women’s sports are poised to grow at a much faster pace than other sports. They’re really getting traction from a viewership and sponsorship perspective,” says Joe Franzetta, head of sports at Roku Media.
Female-led Roku Originals
We launched Roku Originals to create TV shows with heart and hope, reflecting the rich diversity of our audience.
Our data shows that female households are more likely to search for titles with strong female leads.⁹ That’s a clear sign that women want to see themselves in the content they watch. We continue to invest in a programming slate with a cast of strong female leads on both sides of the camera:
First Time Female Director: Chelsea Peretti makes her directorial debut in this comedy, in which she gets her big break to direct a play at her local theater after the director is fired for bad behavior. The movie will be released on March 8, Women’s History Day.
Side Hustlers: We partnered with Ally and Hello Sunshine to debut this 5-episode series where investors Emma Grede and Ashley Graham help enterprising women turn their side hustles into full-time dream careers.
Meet Me in Rome: In this follow-up to the reality rom-com movie Meet Me In Paris, three women travel to Rome to become leading ladies in their very own reality rom-com.
Honest Renovations: Best friends Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, the founder and editor of The Cool Mom Co., explore the joys of parenthood while helping deserving families renovate their homes.
"At Roku, we are excited to create content featuring authentic, strong women and their contributions every day of the year," says Katina Papas Wachter, head of integrated brand partnerships at Roku. "We’re fortunate to have amazing ad products and original content that allows brands to bring these stories to our streamers and help celebrate women’s perspectives."
Join Roku at the ANA/SeeHer’s Gender Equality Conference
Kristina Shepard, Roku’s VP of global advertising sales and partnerships, will discuss inclusivity in streaming and advertising at the ANA/SeeHer Gender Equality Conference, to be held May 2-3 in New York.
Roku supports SeeHer's mission to accurately portray all women and girls in marketing, advertising, media, and entertainment. To align with this vision, we are dedicated to helping our 80 million active accounts discover content that illuminates women’s voices and perspectives.
SeeHer’s tagline is, “If you can see her, you can be her.” We couldn’t agree more.
SeeHer and ANA members can register to attend SeeHer’s annual SheFront here.
¹ Nielsen
² According to NRG’s Leveling the Playing Field Report (October 2022)
Used here: https://newsroom.roku.com/news/2023/05/streaming-women-s-sports-on-roku-just-got-easier-with/klyh8fb6-1684326305
³ Nielsen
⁴ ESPN
⁵ Axios
⁶ Roku Analysis of ACR Data 2023
⁷ Washington Business Journal
⁸ Cheryl Cooky, Ph.D. Purdue University
⁹ Roku internal data, 2023 | Female household is a household that includes 1 or more females
