Notes on Value4Value in a Roku Channel

Last Revised: January 2, 2022 22:45

Why

Discussion between Adam and Dave in Podcasting 2.0 Board Meeting #68 on how cool it might be to see dedicated applications on Roku app, for example, in front of a services dedicated to music, or movies, or documentaries, etc. with unique and familiar experiences/interfaces to those types of media, taking full advantage of the Podcasting 2.0 namespace and index.

Then I got to thinking, what excatly is involved in developing a Roku app, and what is that ecosystem like?

And most importantly, how might Value-4-Value 'play' in such an environment?

Roku Application Distribution, aka the T&Cs

Roku Developer Program Enrollment (either as an Individual or a Company) requires the applicant to tick the "I have read and agree to Roku's Application Distribution Agreement, dated November 23, 2021." {A}

which links to the following documents, which also link to other documents, according to the indentation, below:

  1. Developer Tools License Agreement - dated August 5, 2021 {B}, which links to
    1. Roku Data Guidelines - undated {C},
      1. Roku Data Processing Terms (EU) {G}.
  2. Developer Terms and Agreements, which links to eight other documents
    1. Certification Requirements {E},
    2. Claimed Copyright Infringement Procedures {F},
    3. Roku's Address for Notices,
    4. Roku Advertising Guidelines,
    5. Roku Data Guidelines {C},
    6. Roku Trademark Guidelines {D},
    7. Roku Distribution Agreement {A}, and
    8. Developer Tools License Agreement {B}.
  3. Roku Trademark Guidelines - undated {D}
  4. Certification Criteria - undated {E} for Roku Channel applications,
  5. Developer Policies specific to "Discovery" resources that shall be made available to the Roku platform to drive
    1. Roku Search,
    2. Direct to Play, and
    3. Instant Signup funcationality.
    4. See Also (requiredDeep Linking)
  6. Roku Privacy Policy - dated September 23, 2021 - Roku uses Google Analytics, but shares a link to the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. - also notes the
    1. Copyright & Content Takedown Process (dmca) - undated {F} which may be triggered by someone filing a
    2. Notice of Alleged Copyright Infringement or a
    3. Notice of Infringing or Prohibited Content, then a
    4. Counter-Notice Regarding Alleged Copyright Infringement may be used to respond.
  7. Analytics and Reporting
  8. Beta Channel Program guidelines - limited to 120 days and a max of 20 users.
  9. "TRC Delivery Specs" under Exhibit B, TRC Distribution. See The Roku Channel (TRC) Delivery Specs

Key points for Value-4-Value

are likely related to:

and how Roku Inc. would view a Channel developer receiving payment/exchanging value through a mechanism other than Roku Pay.

Or, this could all be moot and I'm reading too much in to this. e.g. The Apple TV app on Roku - you download it for free and you sign in to that app using your Apple ID. No cash flows through Roku.

Am I over-thinking this?

-- Mike

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