🎯 Roku’s Eyes Off Europe?
Weekend Wrap Up Edition - Week 19/2025
Missed me on Saturdays? I’m back after a well deserved break in Korea 🤩. The industry news kept coming …
BBC Studios is going direct to consumer in the Netherlands, Roku is making a serious play in Brazil, Brits are smashing their own streaming records and because we got a new pope let’s go to Italy with Samsung Ads in a report that basically screams: discovery is broken. Lots more to get into today so off we go!
🎟️ Sneak Peek
At the venue for my upcoming event Streaming Made Easy Live, taking place on September 11th, 2025 in Amsterdam.
Excited? I am. Big time.
🇳🇱 BBC Studios Goes Dutch
The British heavyweight has been in market for years with a linear-first value proposition but sign that the times are changing, they announced the upcoming launch of BBC NL+ which will give Dutch audiences (live and on demand) access to a curated mix of drama, comedy, factual, lifestyle, and natural history, all fully localised with Dutch subtitles.
The message? More British storytelling, slickly repackaged for local tastes and viewing habits plus they chose a strong local partner to get started.
🇬🇧 Brits = Streamaholics?
According to Bango’s latest report, 13% of Brits watch over 4 hours of streaming every single day, that’s 60 full days a year glued to Netflix, Prime, Disney+ and co. Notably, Gen Z are the biggest streamers, but Gen X are paying the bill (classic). Bundling is also reshaping the game, with more Brits getting their subscriptions via telco or broadband deals.
TL;DR: the UK streaming market is mature but bundling + value-for-money will define who keeps winning.
Why trust Streaming Made Easy Premium to know Europe like the back of your hand?
❌ No copy and paste press releases to inform you or out of touch research.
✅ Only insights and analysis based on 20 years of operational and strategy experience in the region.
Still on the edge?
✝️ 📊 A New Pope + A New Data Drop From Samsung Ads
Samsung Ads’ latest “Behind the Screens” report zeroes in on EU5 markets and to honour the election of the new Pope let’s take a look at the trends on the Italian market: Linear TV keeps shrinking, Streaming keeps growing, but user frustration over content discovery is peaking. The home screen has become the battleground for engagement, as viewers juggle 3-4 apps on average. Guess how many times a day a viewer interacts with the home screen? Check out the answer here.
👶🏻 Being In The Future Business
This week on The Media Odyssey Podcast, and guest co-host Jo Redfern take a hard look at kids' media to see where the industry is headed. While most media companies cling to outdated playbooks, kids' content is already living in the future blending platforms, formats, and interactivity in ways others haven't caught up to yet. They talk about why the rest of the industry needs to stop looking back and start learning from what’s working for the next generation of viewers. That’s our direction of travel.
🚨 StreamTV Show: Help Me Pick!
I’ll be attending the StreamTV Show in Denver (on June 11-13) where the agenda is stacked with hot-button topics: FAST 2.0, the future of bundling, measurement nightmares, sports rights, YouTube and everything in between.
Want to come? Use my discount code “RANCHET” to get 10% off.
Want me to cover something specific when I’m back? Check out the full agenda here and hit reply with your top picks. I’ll attend and report back for you.
🇧🇷 Roku’s FAST Charging In Brazil
Roku just launched its own FAST channel lineup in Brazil, pushing further into LATAM (after a launch in Mexico back in 2022). While Samsung TV Plus and Pluto TV have had a head start, Roku must be seeing solid numbers in active accounts to pull the trigger in that market (remember they don’t breakdown numbers by region, well actually they don’t even give us a global number either now). LATAM is a no brainer when it comes to viewership but monetisation not so much.
The unknowns? The Brazil launch raises fresh questions about Roku's European footprint. How come they haven’t launch a FAST hub in the UK yet? When can we expect the Roku Channel to launch in Germany? The two markets leading when it comes to monetisation. It makes you wonder about their European ambitions…
That’s it for today but before you go, tell me:
Enjoy your day and see you on Tuesday for a Deep Dive edition of Streaming Made Easy Premium.
Why do you think BBCS have chosen to brand their new service BBC NL+ when they have the BritBox brand now under their sole ownership internationally and could have used that?
Maybe they consider BBC a stronger brand to lead with - in which case that can’t bode well for BritBox’s international rollout aspirations…