Artificial Intelligence is becoming an increasingly interesting topic in the streaming industry. Roku is ready to use it to place more relevant ads on its ad-supported free streaming TV service (FAST) The Roku Channel. Roku integrate AI.

During Roku’s NewFronts presentation on Tuesday, the company announced contextual AI-powered capabilities that will allow brands to automatically run ads. Next to relevant moments in every movie and show on The Roku Channel.

Julian Mintz, Co-Head of US Brand Sales for Roku, said on stage that AI’s ability helps match brands to the right moment. He referred to examples of a wireless telecommunications company promoting a new line of phones during the commercial break every time after ET phones home or a clothing line advertising after Tim Gunn says “make it work” on Project Runway.

Roku integrate contextual advertising

Contextual advertising is a method that others are trying to use. Like the music video network Vevo, which has turned to AI to create genre or theme-specific programming blocks that advertisers can use for their campaigns on CTV.

It leverages the AI company Hive to process music videos and label different visual components within each video. Which is then fed into a proprietary machine learning model to group music videos together with similar elements.

So, for example, an hour of watching a “beach party” music video could be sponsored by a specific brand.

Another key message from Roku at NewFronts is its streaming reach, with over 71 million active accounts and TVOS leadership in the US, making brands “impossible to miss” during the TV viewing experience.

During the presentation, Alison Levin, Head of Advertising for Roku, said that while hours on Roku have exploded, “the primary streaming app is only opened three days a month, just three days. Roku powers TV for nearly half of US broadband homes every day,” . Highlighting the importance of the overall platform and appearing in front of viewers during TV viewing time.