Roku grew streaming households to 81.6 million globally in Q1, a 14 percent gain year-over-year, according to the company. Revenue was up 19 percent to $881.5 million. Streaming hours were up 23 percent to 30.8 billion, but guidance that rival ad-supported streaming platforms could hinder further growth this year dinged the strong quarterly results, sending shares down 3 percent in after hour trading last week. Claiming a position as “the No. 1 selling TV OS in the U.S. and Mexico,” Roku said the Roku Channel was No. 3 on the platform “by both reach and engagement.” Continue reading Roku Earnings Outperform Street Estimates Despite Headwinds

Comcast ad tech company FreeWheel is launching a programmatic solution it says will change the way marketers implement their TV ad buying. Called Allocation Module, it is rolling out ahead of the 2024 Upfronts and NewFronts. Central to the new solution is what FreeWheel says is its ability to give marketers more control over their ad spending across various ad channels after it’s been committed. FreeWheel’s Allocation Module “offers demand-side platforms a better way to gauge whether or not they are bidding enough, in real time, to meet their clients’ ad spend commitments,” the company says. Continue reading FreeWheel Adds Programmatic Ad Buying in Time for Upfronts

Music tech studio CreateSafe has officially launched its generative AI-powered platform Triniti in open beta. Triniti lets artists create AI voice clones, generate text-to-audio samples, get assistance monetizing and managing music IP or interact with a chatbot on industry-specific music questions. The company has raised $4.6 million in a seed round led by cryptocurrency and blockchain investment firm Polychain Capital to further develop Triniti. Crush Ventures, hip hop music manager Anthony Saleh, and Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media also participated in the funding round. Continue reading Voice Cloning Startup CreateSafe Introduces GenAI Platform

At CES 2019, Tablo, a Canadian OTA receiver manufacturer, announced plans to unveil its Automatic Commercial Skip feature, which makes recorded TV ads skip automatically on over-the-air broadcasts. An open beta for Tablo owners who subscribe to its $5 per month guide will begin in March. The company says the technology is “a cloud-based hybrid of digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms and machine learning.” With it, Tablo apps on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and Roku will skip ads without human intervention. Continue reading Tablo to Debut Automatic Commercial Skipping in Open Beta