Happy Friday!

It’s Newfronts time; the annual jamboree where the biggest names in media and entertainment get to show off their shiny new digital content wares to potential media buyers, and discuss the future of the industry.

With new data from Allied Market Research, predicting that the value of the OTT market will exceed $1 trillion by 2027, it’s no surprise that the digital-first event has grown to be just as important as the more traditional TV-first Upfronts, which has been marketing upcoming TV shows to ad agencies since the 1960s.

This year, Roku will host its first in-person upfront in New York.

What does Roku have to sell? For starters, a catalogue of Quibi originals that it purchased for less than $100M in February 2021, after the short-form streamer’s demise.

As well as ad slots in Quibi and Roku originals, Roku will be selling branded content, product placement and sponsorship.

While half of the revenue in the OTT market comes from ad supported services today, at Axonista, we envision that the NewFronts will evolve over the next few years to include new interactive offerings, including video commerce and livestream shopping, for advertisers and sponsors.

Watch this space!

Team Rerun