The programmatic advertising landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation in streaming television over the past decade, with the traditional hurdles of limited supply and publisher hesitancy giving way to sophisticated, integrated ecosystems.
What was once a fragmented marketplace requiring advertisers to cobble together inventory from multiple sources has evolved into streamlined programmatic channels where premium content meets automated buying power.
“The script is flipped,” said Dylan Moorhead, director of global publisher business development and strategic ad partnerships at Roku, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
Meeting advertisers where they are
Roku is positioning itself by making its inventory widely accessible through programmatic channels. The company’s approach reflects the broader industry shift toward automation and efficiency.
“Roku is very focused on meeting the advertiser where they are, and that means making our supply available programmatically in a sophisticated and simple way,” Moorhead explained. “Our supply is made available through our own Roku exchange and made available through all of the common DSPs and SSPs that advertisers are using every day.”
This strategy aligns with industry growth projections, as programmatic digital display advertising spending in the U.S. is expected to approach $180 billion by 2025, according to eMarketer data.
The FreeWheel partnership expansion
Last December, Roku expanded its programmatic partnership with FreeWheel, creating new opportunities for advertisers to access premium streaming inventory through automated channels.
“We work with FreeWheel in a variety of different ways,” Moorhead said. “We’re tasked with surfacing our supply in a way that makes sense for us to manage our yield as efficiently as possible, but make it available to advertisers in a way that they can tap into it in a way that they’re used to buying.”
The expanded partnership announced in December 2024 enables FreeWheel’s demand partners to access Roku’s content, including The Roku Channel, through the Roku Exchange, implementing a new standard protocol for real-time bidding among programmatic platforms.
Premium inventory authentication
In the increasingly complex digital advertising ecosystem, brand safety and inventory quality remain paramount concerns for marketers investing in programmatic channels.
“Advertisers demand premium inventory,” Moorhead emphasized. “An advertiser deserves to tap into supply that they know is authenticated and makes sense for their brand message.”
Roku has prioritized this authentication process through its integration with FreeWheel, ensuring that inventory meets the certification requirements that advertisers expect when placing their brands in premium environments.
Real-time bidding efficiencies
The technical integration between Roku and FreeWheel enables sophisticated data signaling that improves targeting capabilities and inventory evaluation.
“Through Roku exchange into FreeWheel, we were able to customize data signals to essentially pass metadata that allows for advertisers and FreeWheel to best authenticate, grade, and surface supply for that end advertiser to bid on,” Moorhead said.
This integration leverages OpenRTB infrastructure to create direct connections between platforms, streamlining the programmatic buying process and enhancing transparency for all parties involved.
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage from Programmatic Activation Summit 2025, presented by FreeWheel. For more videos from this series, please visit this page .
