The Roku Channel

The Roku Channel is the destination side of Roku’s two-sided business: the OS aggregates demand, the Channel converts a share of it into Roku-monetized inventory. As FAST has matured from cable’s discount aisle into a measurable share-of-TV story, The Roku Channel has been the loudest data point — Nielsen Gauge clocked it at 3% of all U.S. TV viewership in December 2025, up 45% year over year, the fastest-growing destination the Gauge measures.

Three layers stack here. The free FAST tier — 500+ linear channels — is the on-ramp; the AVOD library of 80,000+ titles is the backstop; Premium Subscriptions is the marketplace, reselling 55+ third-party SVOD services (Paramount+, HBO Max, Peacock Premium Plus, Showtime, Starz, AMC+, Shudder, Acorn TV) on a Roku-billed login at advertised retail prices, with Roku taking a revenue share. The April 2026 addition of Peacock Premium Plus signaled how serious NBCU now treats Roku’s Premium Subscriptions hub as a third-party distribution lane.

The Q1 2026 segment split — Roku for the first time disclosing Advertising ($613M, +27% YoY) and Subscriptions ($519M, +30% YoY) as separate lines under the Platform umbrella — is the first time investors and ad buyers can independently size the two engines The Roku Channel feeds.