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ioan
Roku Guru

Roku Billing Initiated?

I'm trying to enroll in the Roku Billing Services but in my Developer Dashboard I don't have that option. It has a grayed out message "Roku Billing Initiated" but that message was always there. Who should I contact to enroll in the Billing Services?
https://github.com/e1ioan/
http://rokucam.com
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9 REPLIES 9
37mediagroup
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

Having the same issue actually. I've made a post in the DP section and the general Roku Developer section, and I've sent 2 emails as of last Friday to 2 email contacts I've come across.  As of yet, I've not heard back on anything, and I'm beginning to wonder if the RAF is no longer supported.

I've sent emails to a few of the quasi-recommended ad companies as well, as it seems you only need an Ad Server URL to be submitted. I'm curious to hear from others as well, but so far & in searching the forums, nada.
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RokuTomC
Community Moderator
Community Moderator

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

Hi all, to complete your enrollment in Roku Billing, please send a completed W-9 or W8-BEN to enrollment@roku.com. You should have received an automated email about this, but it may have been caught by an email filter.
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EnTerr
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

"RokuTomC" wrote:
... You should have received an automated email about this, but it may have been caught by an email filter.

Or as the case may be today, services might be affected by the ongoing flustercluck with AWS N.Virginia. The nets abuzz about it. 
This should not affect the humans answering @roku.com emails though.
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37mediagroup
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

Is there anywhere on the Dashboard to see the RAF ad sold amount, in the middle of a month or billing period?  Also, how does it get broken down, per video?   Wondering how it would work if one acquired 3rd party content (small YT video owners) or tried running a few different "shows" within ones channel. How to accurately split any revenue.

Also just clarifying something, does enrolling into the RAF alone (using the above steps, emailing enrollment@roku.com and submitting a W9) set us up for advertising & revenue sharing?  Or do we also need to setup with an Ad Partner?   This link might be dated but seems to indicate either we pick the ad tech,  or need to email advertising@roku.com  https://www.roku.com/advertising#publisher-solutions
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renojim
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

I'll try to answer some of your questions the best I can, but I have to admit that even though I've been in the RAF program (if that's what we want to call it) for a while now, there's still some things that are a mystery to me.

There's nothing on the Dashboard pertaining to ad impressions.  You can get daily reports emailed to you, but I believe you have to request them.  I highly recommend getting them and/or implementing some kind of tracking/reporting within your channel.  Otherwise, you're at the mercy of Roku and mistakes have been made.  Having said that, Roku has made steady improvements to the process and I'm now satisfied that their numbers and my numbers match.

I don't think you can get the detail you're looking for, but I can't say for sure since I've only implemented RAF in games; I'm not displaying videos.  The reports I receive are broken out by day (and I've never figured out for sure whose day that is, but I receive reports shortly after midnight Pacific time) and by channel.  Maybe someone that has a video channel and receives reports can chime in on how theirs are broken out.  You'd probably want to do your own tracking just to be sure.  You might want to look at SetTrackingCallback if you need that level of detailed tracking.

I use Roku entirely for filling my ads and I've been mostly satisfied.  However, they only provide ads for the U.S.  If you anticipate a large number of users outside the U.S. you'll want to find your own provider.  There's a thread here from someone trying to find a provider without any success so far.  It's hard to get the ad providers to even return an email.  There's no additional steps required if you just want to go with Roku; you pretty much get them by default.

I can't help much with the current process of getting enrolled.  Things were different when I first enrolled.  You do want to make sure everything has made it all the way through accounting.  Sometimes it seems as if the technical side and the accounting side don't communicate.  If you find a contact at Roku that seems to be especially helpful, treasure that email address. 🙂

-JT
Roku Community Streaming Expert

Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution."
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Kudo.

I am not a Roku employee.
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37mediagroup
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

"renojim" wrote:


I can't help much with the current process of getting enrolled.  Things were different when I first enrolled.  You do want to make sure everything has made it all the way through accounting.  Sometimes it seems as if the technical side and the accounting side don't communicate.  If you find a contact at Roku that seems to be especially helpful, treasure that email address. 🙂

-JT

Thanks. I was able to sign up, so I guess I'm enrolled and going, just wanted to make sure I should be credited for my ads shown.  I'll see if I can email them regarding ads per video stats.  Otherwise I suppose to start at least I could just offer some form of overall split (% of ads divided by % of videos shown), so if $500 is generated, this show gained 60% of total plays, this show 30%, and this show 10%.  Not the best way, I'm sure the Crackles of the world do it different but they're hiring programmers and ad servers far more than me.
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EnTerr
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

"Pasnow" wrote:
Also just clarifying something, does enrolling into the RAF alone (using the above steps, emailing enrollment@roku.com and submitting a W9) set us up for advertising & revenue sharing?  Or do we also need to setup with an Ad Partner?

"Enrolling in billing services" and RAF enrollment are not the same thing, AFAIK. The was the case last year when i did it - and likely still is. A few reasons for me to say that: my impressions is that by "billing services" the Co includes channel subscriptions, app purchases and in-app purchases. Income from that gets paid via paypal xfer (no fee) and reported 1099-K. RAF payments on the other hand are ACH (direct deposit), done quarterly (!) and generate 1099-misc.

I suggest opening new thread to discuss RAF enrollment/income/reporting and keep this one to "genuine" roku billing.
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ioan
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

"EnTerr" wrote:
Income from that gets paid via paypal xfer (no fee) and reported 1099-K.


How? I don't see any option to deposit the "income" to paypal on the developer site.
https://github.com/e1ioan/
http://rokucam.com
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37mediagroup
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Billing Initiated?

Under "My Developer Info" it lists alot of your details like Name, ph#, address etc. It also asks 'Paypal Email Address'
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