Roku’s splashy hire of Charlie Collier, former CEO of Fox Entertainment and president of AMC, has sent a clear signal about the company’s ambition to make more noise with original programming.
As the new head of Roku Media, Collier is coming in to oversee advertising and programming, and his appointment was accompanied by promotions for Mustafa Ozgen and Gidon Katz, to oversee devices and consumer experience, respectively.
While it didn’t generate the same headlines as the Collier move, Roku earlier this year turned a number of industry heads by installing ITV and Turner vet David Eilenberg as head of originals.
The centerpiece of Roku’s programming strategy is the Roku Channel.
A person familiar with Roku’s budgeting process notes that even though the company has an Adam’s Rib-like relationship with Netflix (Wood incubated the idea for Roku while working for Netflix’s Reed Hastings, who ultimately declined to fund it in-house), spending will never be anywhere near the multiple billions required in subscription streaming.
“But this is a leveling-up given Charlie’s background.”.
He shifted to Fox in the fall of 2018, about three months before The Masked Singer premiered.
Charter Communications, which owns the No.