Roku users are streaming nearly 3 hours a day on average, and the most-searched term is for 'free' content

Roku

• Roku executive Scott Rosenberg was interviewed Tuesday at Business Insider's IGNITION 2018 conference about his role in driving the company's advertising revenue.
• Rosenberg said that Roku customers are interested in ad-free content - so much so that the most-searched term on the Roku channel is "free."
• He also revealed that Roku users watch almost three hours of streaming content a day, on average.
• Roku is the most popular over-the-top (OTT) streaming device, but is facing growing competition from rivals Comcast, Amazon, and Apple.

Roku users watch an average of almost three hours of streaming content per day, and many crave a viewing experience that is advertising-free, Roku executive Scott Rosenberg said Tuesday at Business Insider's IGNITION conference.

Rosenberg, Roku's senior vice president and general manager of advertising, shared these statistics on stage at IGNITION 2018, Business Insider's ninth annual conference featuring leaders in media and tech. He talked about the cord-cutting trend, where users are consistently turning away from tradition "live" programs on television and moving toward on-demand entertainment through Roku and other over-the-top (OTT) streaming players.

"It's very clear to us at Roku that consumers are cutting and shaving the chord not just because they want more choices in the matter, but because they're looking for value," Rosenberg said. "So, free is a very important selection criteria as consumers get into OTT."

Much of Rosenberg's work revolves around finding the right balance between ad-free viewing that pleases consumers, and ad-supported content that brings in revenue. Rosenberg said that for Roku's users - who on average watch 2.8 hours of streaming content a day - advertisements need to be short, yet clickable and effective, in order to keep viewers' attention.

Despite Roku's efforts to keep ads at a minimum, its customers still crave content that is completely free of advertising. In fact, Rosenberg said "free" is the most-searched term on the Roku Channel, a one-stop channel for free content (some with ads, some without) that launched last year.

With 24 million users, Roku is the most popular OTT streaming player, beating out similar devices from the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Google. 

Read more: 'We outperform all of them': Roku is readying itself for competition from the likes of Amazon and Comcast as the streaming war heats up

Competition is growing in the streaming and on-demand entertainment industry, however, as new players and industry veterans look to enter the market or expand their reach. 

"I would say, broadly, consumers have so many more options now to watch longform, premium video in our living room," Rosenberg told Business Insider in November. "We all should expect that the traditional video distributors will feel compelled to compete more aggressively to keep consumer attention, and to compete at the price point that consumers are demanding."

Tune in to Day 2 of IGNITION 2018, where speakers include Etsy CEO Josh Silverman and Barbara Corcoran from ABC's "Shark Tank: