Rotten Tomatoes Pushes Into OTT With Live Streaming Channel on Roku

Rotten Tomatoes, the website known for reviews and ratings of movies and TV shows, is the latest media brand to make a push into OTT. The NBCUniversal-owned property is today debuting a live streaming channel, the Rotten Tomatoes Channel, on Roku devices. It will be one of the 100-plus live channels available as part of the Roku Channel's live programming lineup. Top line The Rotten Tomatoes Channel will debut with 100 hours of programming to start, including 10 originally produced shows. The ad-supported channel features celebrity interviews, trailers, behind-the-scenes, original series and a video version of the podcast Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong. In the coming weeks, the channel will also become available on NBCUniversal-owned streamer Peacock, the Comcast-owned free streaming service Xumo TV and other platforms. “We are thrilled to extend our relationship with fans through our new Rotten Tomatoes OTT channel,” Sandro Corsaro, Rotten Tomatoes’ svp and chief creative officer, said in a statement. “The channel will not only deliver an around-the-clock celebration of entertainment but continue our brand promise to help fans find what to watch, by delivering the best movie, TV and streaming recommendations.” Between the lines The rollout adds another channel to NBCUniversal’s portfolio of free streamers as the company looks to build out its digital advertising assets heading into this year's upfront. (NBCUniversal and Roku will both sell ads for the Rotten Tomatoes Channel on Roku; NBCUniversal will handle sales for the other platforms.) Last April, the ticketing and digital media company Fandango Media, of which Rotten Tomatoes is a subsidiary, acquired the free streaming service Vudu from Walmart; two months earlier, Comcast bought Xumo TV. In addition to those streamers and Peacock, which rolled out nationally last July, the company also operates the transactional video-on-demand service FandangoNow under the Fandango Media subsidiary. It will also at launch increase the amount of free programming available on Roku, which has aimed to bulk up its slate of free programming as it looks to continue to siphon away ad dollars from linear television. Bottom line The channel launch also marks a considerable expansion of the Rotten Tomatoes brand, which has been expanding on different platforms, including original digital video series and podcasts. The brand reaches 33 million unique visitors and 53 million visits per month on its owned-and-operated digital platforms, and has tracked spikes in traffic over the last year as consumers have looked for programming recommendations for in-home entertainment.