Roku Developer Program

[jthomerson]

I'm planning a project to launch a new channel on Roku later this year. As part of my project timeline I need to account for the time required for the app review process, etc. All I've been able to find here are some older posts that indicated it could take a couple of weeks to get a channel reviewed, and when it was approved it was posted immediately. This leaves me with two questions:

• What is the average time for channel review and acceptance nowadays?


• Can a developer choose a specific date that they don't want the channel launched prior to? (like if we have a marketing campain / announcement / etc that we want to go out prior to launch, but then have the channel released immediately after that?)

[jthomerson]

Ping ... Any answers here?

[RokuJoel]

Officially, it takes up to two weeks to review and test your channel. However as the process usually involves multiple rounds of testing, reporting bugs back to the developer, waiting for the developer to fix the bugs and resubmit, reviewing and testing again, repeated until the channel meets a level we are comfortable publishing, this can be a prolonged process. So really, how many bugs in your code, how many graphics that are not up to spec or the wrong size, how many typos and textual errors in your descriptions, these are the determining factor. Some channels take 2-3 days, we probably have one or two that have been in the queue for 6 months or longer if the developer takes their time fixing issues.

You can set a desired publication date in a field that displays after you hit "Submit", and we will, within reason, attempt to get your channel published by that date if you can resolve all or most of the issues in a timely manner.

- Joel

[jthomerson]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
You can set a desired publication date in a field that displays after you hit "Submit", and we will, within reason, attempt to get your channel published by that date if you can resolve all or most of the issues in a timely manner.

Thanks RokuJoel. That helps a lot. My second question wasn't 100% answered, though. Could you verify that I can set a date that the app will not be launched prior to? That's the main thing for this project - we don't want it appearing before the announcement date.

[RokuJoel]

"jthomerson" wrote:
Could you verify that I can set a date that the app will not be launched prior to?

Yes, that is the purpose of that field, to tell us "don't publish before...".

Make sure that everyone on your team is on the same page about the launch date, we recently had a situation where the content owner requested a launch date, and the developer insisted that we publish immediately.

- Joel

[jthomerson]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
Yes, that is the purpose of that field, to tell us "don't publish before...".

Thanks!

"RokuJoel" wrote:
Make sure that everyone on your team is on the same page about the launch date, we recently had a situation where the content owner requested a launch date, and the developer insisted that we publish immediately.

Oh, we definitely will be. But definitely a good reminder. Thanks again.