ROXi Adds Simon Cowell As An Investor, Inks Samsung Deal

Photo Credit: Nicolas J Leclercq

ROXi, a UK-based music-video app for smart televisions, has added Simon Cowell as an investor and inked a partnership deal with Samsung.

London-headquartered ROXi, which says that its library encompasses approximately 90 million music videos and some 400,000 karaoke tracks, formally announced both developments today. On the former front, Simon Cowell, besides taking an interest in ROXi, is now set to curate exclusive music-video playlists for the service.

And in doing so, the 63-year-old (who previously coordinated with TikTok, Universal Music, and Samsung to create a collaboration tool called StemDrop) will join current ROXi curators including Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Sheryl Crow, and Alesha Dixon. Each of these individuals, the company emphasized, is likewise a “partner.”

“It’s fantastic to be a part of the ROXi team and I’m really happy to be bringing music video streaming to millions of TVs worldwide – and what’s even better is you can get it for free!” Cowell said in part when addressing his involvement with the app.

Meanwhile, under the initially highlighted Samsung tie-up, ROXi has become available on every smart television that the company manufactured “from the 2018 range to present day.” The app is also offered via Amazon’s Fire TV line as well as Google TV and Android TV, higher-ups reiterated.

Lastly, regarding the collection of announcements that ROXi made today, Rockefeller Capital Management’s Strategic Advisory unit has been tapped to serve as the platform’s “exclusive financial advisor.” In the role, the entity is expected “to progress partnership opportunities with major media and technology players in the USA.”

In terms of the latter, ROXi – which only arrived in the UK and Ireland in November of 2021 – is teeing up a stateside debut for 2023. Per execs, talks “are underway with leading major media and technology players,” with related “further announcements expected soon.”

ROXi’s Samsung agreement (and outlined expansion into the US) comes a little over one month after Vevo announced plans to add six channels to Hulu’s live-TV lineup.

The channels in question – Vevo Holiday, Vevo Pop, Vevo Hip-Hop, Vevo Country, Vevo ‘80s, and Vevo ‘90s – officially became available to Hulu TV subscribers at December’s start. More recently, Vevo revealed that Karol G (whose videos garnered a cumulative total of 2.76 billion views on the year) was its top global artist of 2022, while Lil Baby (674.7 million domestic views) was its top US artist.

Lastly, Warner Music’s WMX artist-services division two weeks back added a trio of “exclusive” ad-supported channels (WMX Pop, WMX Rock, and WMX Hip-Hop) to Roku.