Roku continues to add exclusive sports rights to its streaming platform.
The latest deal will make Roku the exclusive streaming home for the X gamesthe extreme sports competition founded by ESPN but sold to private equity in 2022. The deal will begin in January with X Games Aspen, and continue with a “major” summer competition to follow.
The X Games will be available on the recently launched Roku Sports channel, with Roku also launching an X Games FAST channel and an X Games Zone that functions as a streaming platform for the competition.
Roku has been aggressive in pursuing opportunistic sports rights, as well as rights to sports-adjacent programming, in an effort to strengthen its presence. Roku Channel and develop its advertising activity. He cut his first exclusive sports agreement last year with Formula E, and has since returned to MLB and NBA G League games. that too recovered the broadcast rights to the NFL Network Hello Football, The Rich Eisen Showand other sports programs.
He launched his Roku Sports channel during the summer to highlight its live sports and sports programming.
“This partnership with X Games is the perfect marriage of content and distribution: more than half of The Roku Channel’s monthly FAST audience is aged 18-49, and sits right at the intersection of sports and youth culture,” said Joe Franzetta, head of sports at Roku Media. “We look forward to using Roku’s reach to make these competitions – and the athletes at the heart of it all – available to millions of viewers for free.”
“As the new CEO of X Games, I am excited to announce this partnership with Roku, a platform that shares our commitment to providing the best possible experience for our athletes and fans,” added Jeremy Bloom, CEO of X Games. “This collaboration ensures that the world’s biggest action sports events will reach a wider audience, while celebrating the genius, creativity and passion of the incredible athletes who make the X Games the ultimate stage for action sports .”