Roku Direct Publisher – Channel Publishing
Where and how to publish your direct publisher channel on Roku.
When you reach this phase, you should already set up your developer account; if not, please do so.
If you need help, look up the article about how to set up a Roku Developer account.
Following our preparation video, you should already have all the data you need to set up your account in a folder.
The data you need, the branding images you’ll need, and so on.
Start by going on roku.com and signing in from the right side of the monitor, click developer, then dashboard, and manage my channels.
To start a new channel, click on add channel.
Choose Direct Publisher, fill in the name of the channel, and keep in mind that every channel name on the Roku network must be unique.
Click continue.
On the properties page, you can select the regions where you want the channel to be reachable, the languages for your channel, and of course, you need to make some settings, like regarding your channel content.
If your channel is directed to adults or not to kids, for example.
The general audience rating for your channel, the terms, and services page.
The following setting is the vanity URL or vanity access code. The vanity code is used to identify your channel and is also present in your Roku store link, so you might want to customize that.
Remember that the vanity access code is also unique across the Roku platform.
On another note, every time you change a setting on the left side of the screen, you’ll need to remake or redo the settings on the right side.
When all the settings are made, click save.
On this page, you need to add the JSON feed; this is the feed that you can get from inside your TV Boss Fire account.
Just click copy, go back to Roku, and paste it in.
The video format uses the default setting; click continue.
And now we’ve arrived on the branding page. Following our preparation video, you should have all your branding images ready.
You need the set of 4 images in JPEG / PNG format:
- Logo: 400 x 90
- Small logo: 165 x 60
- Splash screen: 1920 x 1080
- Poster: 540 x 405
Start by uploading the channel logo, the splash screen image, and the small search for the Roku image.
You can preview how your channel looks by clicking the preview button.
If you want to make changes to the background or appearance, you can do so by adjusting the available options.
You can play around a little bit with the settings, but always check to preview to see what your channel looks like.
Click continue.
On the next page, you can choose the layout for your channel.
Save.
And now it takes us to the category section.
If you remember our article about how to set up your videos, you’ll remember that we talked about tags. Tags are used to define your categories.
You need to have at least one custom category.
By default, Roku will add the most popular and the recently added categories.
To create a custom category, fill in the category Title or Name, then form the drop-down and select the tag or tags you want to use to display videos in this category.
Remember that if you use multiple tags, you would need to use them all in setting up the categories. Otherwise, Roku might find errors. If you use three or four tags on your videos, you need to add them to the same type or create multiple categories.
When you’ve finished click save.
The first custom category is created, and you can click on continue.
And we arrive at the channel store info page.
On the channel store page, you can see your channel name; if you decide later that you want to change your channel name, you can do it from here.
You also need to provide a short description for your channel that shouldn’t be longer than 300 characters; the brief description will appear to the viewers when they browse the channels on their Roku TV.
It would help if you also had a web description; this can be a little longer, up to 1500 characters. The web description will be listed in the Roku channel store.
Next – The channel poster, and select a category for your channel.
Roku, from time to time, changes these categories. As of this year, we’ve noticed that even if you select, for example, sports as your category, when they review the channel, if your channel is better suited for another category, they will publish the channel in that category. Still, it would help if you used what you think is best for your channel.
You can select the domestic region for your channel, like the home base.
When you’re finished, click save.
The next screen is the monetization screen. The fun bit, right?
If you’ve already approved monetization for your account, you can set up your ad feed on this screen.
Just select yes, fill in your ad feed URL, fill in your privacy URL, choose the genre of your ad, and of course, you need to add a text URL.
When you’re finished, click continue.
The next screen will be about screenshots.
Screenshots will appear on the web version of your channel store listing. So it’s recommended to use at least one; if you don’t have one prepared, you can auto-generate one.
When you finish, click continue.
And now we’re on the support information page. As you can see, you need to provide some information.
A contact URL, email, phone number, and a page for more information. You can use your page if you have one, or you can use the about page that’s generated for you by TV Boss Fire; this is why we’ve generated it, so that those who don’t have a web page, especially for their channel, can use it here then you need to.
Add some administrative contact details, name – should be developer, developer the administrative contact, and the technical contact can be the same(i usually use the same). You need to add a phone number and the developer’s email.
When you finish, click save.
And with this, the basic channel setup is finished.
You can review all the settings on this screen, and all the check marks should be marked okay.
If you have any errors, the check mark will not be available, and you cannot submit the channel.
If you see an error, click on it and see where it is and what it’s about.
Just go back into the TV Boss Fire area and adjust the error; save the channel again; go back to the Roku settings page and refresh.
Now Roku will refresh the feed, and the error will go away.
When you only have yellow warning messages, you can submit the channel for approval; you cannot if you get a
red error message.
Now all you have to do is check that you certify that all the information you provided is correct and that you have the right to use the content on your channel.
Now you can schedule the channel for publishing.
This was the whole setup process.
Keep in mind that you can have multiple Roku developer accounts, and you can also have an unlimited number of channels inside one reserve.
Roku doesn’t put any limits on how many channels you can have inside your account. Still, if you want to monetize your channels, you need to submit your tax information and enroll in the Roku partner program with every account you create and want to monetize. That’s all for now, see you in the next article.