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Why major TV moments are paired best with everyday viewing.
It's that time of year when media companies and streaming apps tease their biggest upcoming moments for advertisers’ consideration — viral reality fare, a buzzy drama series, a sporting event for the ages.
In today’s fragmented landscape, these moments matter because they unify large audiences in a shared cultural experience. And as the front door to TV for 125 million people daily, Roku has these moments and amplifies them on our platform — such as we did with a 2026 NBC Winter Olympics Experience.
But the hit-driven spikes in viewership are only part of the story. The everyday moments between the spikes are just as powerful when it comes to reaching audiences at scale, yet they don’t get the same spotlight. When the game or show ends, what do you watch next? Maybe it’s Friends. Maybe it’s 2 Broke Girls. My personal go-to is The Office, a consistently great rewatch.
These unique streaming preferences are not the exception, but the rule. On Roku, the 10 most-searched shows combined capture just 2.1% of all searches. Streaming has a very long tail of beloved content, and each household has its own tastes and viewing patterns.
This is what we call The Habit. It's personal, consistent, and largely independent of entertainment industry buzz. As advertisers think about reaching audiences at scale, they need to plan for the attention-grabbing hits and the daily habits that drive consistent reach and results.
At Roku, we get the importance of the habit. As the #1 TV operating system in the U.S., our platform reaches half of all streaming households. These households use Roku an average of 25 days a month — showing up again and again regardless of what’s trending.
For these audiences, the Roku home screen is where their daily viewing habit starts. And their engagement with our OS transcends any individual genre, franchise, episode or sports event. Brands can use this powerful window to reach audiences during the critical moment when they’re deciding what to watch — regardless of what’s trending.
We’ve designed the Roku OS on the premise that great content deepens the habit, and a viewer who comes back every day is worth more than a viewer who drops in for one episode or game before bouncing. That kind of engagement compounds over time.
For marketers, the opportunity isn’t choosing between the hits and the habit. It’s understanding how both work together to drive real impact. Roku can support this understanding through the direct relationships we have with our streamers.
With 100 million global streaming households, logged in and authenticated, we capture valuable deterministic signals as viewers move from a US Open match to the latest John Wick movie to Parks and Rec. Advertisers can use these signals, and Roku’s extensive partnerships with data and measurement platforms, to achieve greater precision in their audience buying, optimization and measurement.
This interoperable approach means advertisers can link their ads on Roku to specific outcomes, wherever those ads appear.
Bottom line, you don't need to choose between the hits and the everyday viewing habit.
The brands I see winning show up for both.
