Roku has acquired the long-running home improvement series This Old House, including the TV studio behind the show and all episodes of This Old House and Ask This Old House.
The acquisition comes as the streaming entertainment company seeks to beef up its free, ad-supported Roku Channel as competition heats up from Tubi, Amazon’s IMDb TV, and other free streaming options.
In January, Roku acquired the distribution rights to the defunct Quibi’s library of 75 shows and documentaries, giving Roku customers exclusive access to Quibi content.
Roku said the executive team behind This Old House will join the company, including This Old House Ventures CEO Dan Suratt. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Past seasons of This Old House and Ask This Old House are currently available for free on The Roku Channel. Episodes from the current seasons will stream on-demand after they air on local PBS stations.
“As the top-rated home improvement program in America, This Old House has the broad appeal that is perfectly suited to support The Roku Channel’s ad-supported growth strategy,” Rob Holmes, vice president of programming at Roku, said in a press release Friday.
Free streaming services have seen viewer numbers climb during the pandemic.
Fox’s Tubi said viewership of its free, ad-supported offerings exceeded 2.5 billion hours in 2020, up 58 percent from the previous year, while Pluto TV, which is owned by ViacomCBS, reported that it is now attracting approximately 45 million users every month, up nearly 70 percent for 2020.
Subscription services have also experienced a boon from the pandemic, with global streaming subscriptions passing one billion for the first time, according to a report last week from the Motion Picture Association.
The free streaming market is heating up as services that once relied exclusively on TV re-runs and old movies seek to differentiate themselves with original content. Amazon’s IMDb TV has launched original TV series, including the spy drama Alex Rider and an upcoming show with Judge Judy.
Bloomberg recently reported that Tubi is planning on producing original movies, with an eye to also make TV series.
Roku said its acquisition of This Old House exemplifies its effort to stream shows with a wide audience appeal, which will in turn attract more advertisers.
“The more relevant the content becomes for a larger audience, the more appealing it is to advertising partners,” Roku’s Holmes said.
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