• by Wayne Friedman , May 5, 2020

Following the purchase of Dataxu -- the demand-side platform it bought last October -- Roku is now integrating DSP operations into starting up a new buying/management advertising service called OneView Ad Platform, which will add a strong video streaming component for marketers.

Roku says OneView will leverage TV identity data from the company's large U.S. streaming platform to manage advertising across OTT, desktop and mobile campaigns — reaching what it says is an estimated four out of five U.S. homes.

Last December, as a result of Roku’s $150 million purchase of Dataxu, Amazon Fire TV -- a major competitor to Roku -- removed Dataxu from its Fire TV third-party DSP service.

OneView's launch partners include Drizly, Experian, Intuit TurboTax, and Lexus.

Roku, the set-top-box/smart TV interface for streaming TV networks and apps, has nearly 40 million U.S. active accounts and continues to see major growth for its advertising revenues.

OneView allows advertisers to buy media against performance guarantees based on business outcomes such as website visits or mobile app downloads.

Those guarantees could also include traditional measurement, such as Nielsen viewers ages 18-49. In addition, OneView allows marketers to access more than 100 audience segments.

“These are unique to the platform,” Alison Levin, vice president of ad sales and strategy at Roku, tells Television News Daily. “Examples include being able to target cord-cutters, heavy SVOD viewers, and buying an audience that used to watch live sports.”

Roku can also help with forecasting and scaling OTT audiences. eMarketer estimates Roku had $433 million in ad revenues in 2019.