Roku Ups David Eilenberg To Head Of Content As Veteran Exec Rob Holmes Exits

25.01.2023 - 02:37 / deadline.com

David Eilenberg, who joined Roku last April to head up original programming at the streaming company, has been upped to head of content, Deadline has confirmed.

Eilenberg is well-known in creative circles, having been an exec at ITV, Turner and Mark Burnett’s company during the course of his career. With his elevation, VP of Programming Rob Holmes, who had been with the company for about six years and helped steer initiatives like the launch of the Roku Channel and the acquisition of programming from Quibi, has exited the company.

The moves are the first significant ones in the executive suite since former Fox and AMC Networks exec Charlie Collier arrived last year as president of Roku Media.

Eilenberg’s elevation will bring content at Roku Originals and Roku Studios under one leader. Roku as a company is confronting a soft ad market and overall financial constraints as it looks to keep ramping up its original content. Last November, it said it would cut 200 jobs, or about 7% of its workforce. While Roku remains a major streaming gatekeeper in the U.S., a number of key investors and influential voices on Wall Street have voiced skepticism about the company’s prospects. Its stock, which was a pandemic darling as streaming boomed, plummeted more than 80% in 2022.

Unlike rivals in subscription streaming, Roku makes its own content available for free. It has positioned the Roku Channel, a hub for on-demand film and TV titles as well as FAST channels, at the center of its content efforts and looked to advertising to provide a majority of its revenue. While the number is a fraction of what Netflix and other SVOD players are spending, reports that Roku was on track to lay out $1 billion on content last year gained