Earlier this week, Roku announced that the company’s long time General Manager and Senior Vice President of Content and Services, Steve Shannon, will leave the company by the end of the year. Shannon has been with Roku since 2012. He previously worked for Rovi as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Product Development.
“Steve joined Roku in the early days of our monetization strategy and was instrumental in developing key advertising, content, and services initiatives, as well as recruiting top talent like Scott,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood in a statement. “We are grateful for the contributions Steve made and wish him the very best as he moves on to his next great adventure.”
Even before joining Roku, Shannon had long been part of a small circle of close confidants surrounding Wood. He and Shannon co-founded a startup that developed the original multimedia authoring tool Dreamweaver, way back in 1995. Shannon also joined Wood at ReplayTV, where they debuted one of the first DVRs.
Now, the company has announced that he will be succeeded by fellow Roku veteran Scott Rosenberg beginning January 2018. Scott has led Roku’s advertising business and will now also lead content distribution and related services. Rosenberg joined Roku in 2012 to build the company’s advertising business, which has since become a massive income source for the company.
He previously co-founded and led a mobile advertising startup, and before that worked as VP of advanced advertising for Rovi.
Under Roku’s new executive structure, staff and resources for advertising, content distribution, and related services will be combined. The company said the move will help it roll out innovative products, drive user engagement, and generate more revenue from active accounts. As media and visual content companies have seen a rising trend over the last few years, this seems like a strategic move that could benefit the company.
