The news: Roku wants to transform TV advertising with generative AI (genAI). Instead of cycling the same few commercials, the company is opening its platform to hundreds of thousands of advertisers—mirroring the endless churn of ads on social feeds. 

CFO Dan Jedda told investors that the goal is to expand beyond the “top 200 advertisers” to the next 100,000, per The Verge.

More than half of broadband households use Roku TVs or streamers, and 20% of US TV viewing happens on Roku devices, per Nielsen, making the company’s reach unmatched. Roku projects it will soon top 100 million streaming households.

Borrowing from social media: Roku’s latest strategy is to enable small businesses to create AI-generated video ads, lowering barriers to entry and making ad loads feel fresher and less repetitive. It wants its streaming inventory to look more like Instagram or TikTok—free-flowing and diverse, yet personalized.

However, without careful targeting and granular personalization, viewers could feel bombarded with a random flood of ads.

Ad diversification is key to survival: Roku has pioneered new formats, including autoplay video on the home screen, but faces pushback and growing competition.