Roku Developer Program

[Sike1234]

Adding my current customers into Roku's


I have a website that delivers live streaming video content. We have an average of 8,000 users per day (Mon-Fri). Of the 8,000 users that login every day.... we have 5% that have upgraded to a paid account.

We have 400 users currently paying $7 per month subscription fee using our merchant account. When these users login to our site, they get access to additional channels and VOD content. Our business model is based on giving away live original content and we depend on the 5% conversion rate to pay bills.



My question has to do with integration of our existing customer base and Roku's “rendezvous” style of registration. I got the "register" sample working using XML files on our website and I have some questions about data types, pricing for new and existing customers, and other general tech questions.

First Data Types

I created a Roku table in my SQL database with the following field definitions and was wondering if they are what you would have done???



I would like to work on a way to allow my existing paid users to watch for free on the roku ... if they even have purchased a Roku device. (We are pushing the Roku on the site via your banner program) . So, can I even do this ???

If yes, I assume I would have to create the XML file and query it through the doRegistration() function in the "register" code sample.

What should the getRegResult.xml file look like ??

<result>
<status>success</status>
<regToken>xxxxxxxx1234</regToken>
<customerId>154932</customerId>
<creationTime>2012-04-30 01:00:00.000</creationTime>
</result>

<result>
<status>success</status>
<regToken>xxxxxxxx5678</regToken>
<customerId>224932</customerId>
<creationTime>2012-04-30 01:00:00.000</creationTime>
</result>


for each of my paid customers????

Pricing for New and Existing Customers


I would like your opinion on pricing via Roku. We are planning on providing a free version of our Channel via Roku and a paid version on Roku and hoping on a decent conversion rate.

I'm ready to publish the free and paid channels in the development store and want to ask if anyone has successfully published a in channel upgrade for a content provider.

Can I get any guidance ????

Tech Questions



I'll save the tech questions for the next post....

Thanks in Advance

[Trevor]

You'd need to work a little on that example to make to work smoothly for people who are already registered. Are you asking for the XML if you return an XML for all your customers in one XML file? Just the one at a time is what the example wants. Also that example does nothing with the customer id or creation time from the XML, it only looks at the registration token that it gets from the server after submitting the Roku device's unique id. I'd suggest you rewrite it from the ground up for your needs, it's pretty simple if you pick through that example for how to put it together.

How do you currently track your paid customers? All you'd need to do is add the Roku device ID to their accounts and then query that device ID on your server to see if it is on an active paid account. Registering it would mean adding the device ID to their paid account. With this you could easily just release one channel that has both the free and paid content in it instead of two separate channels.

[Sike1234]

Thank you ... I will rewrite it.


I'm using SQL 2008 membership schema to track paid and non-paid members. I added an additional field to identify paid and non paid members and use logic to upon login to redirect appropriately.

We currently use the same logic to sniff Android, iPhone, and now Roku devices upon login.

The difficulty I'm having now is what to do on the pricing model for the Roku.

I looked for similar business models and found GBTV, but they don't provide a free version. Personally I don't think we will see enough conversions if we charge the full $7.

I was wondering if you are aware of a business development account manager that would provide me advice on the pricing issue???

If the price for the upgrade is wrong... Development might waist 30 days.


Thx

[Sike1234]

the site is http://cowheadtv.com


Michael Di Santo
email is mike@webaphorism.com
cell 813-817-0390