RAKUTEN TV LAUNCHES FREE ORIGINAL CONTENT CHANNEL – ‘RAKUTEN STORIES’

The Rakuten Stories channel – which is available for free through ad-support – is the home of original and exclusive content on Rakuten TV. Covering incredibly empowering subject matters that will inspire and excite viewers through the range of stories told through a sporting lens, the channel has launched multiple exclusive documentaries including Andrés Iniesta – The Unexpected Hero, BVB 09 – Stories who we are, Break Point: A Davis Cup Story, Ride Your Dream, The Secrets of La Roja, The Australian Dream, Inside Killian Jornet, Sadio Mané – Made in Senegal, and Serge Ibaka – Anything is Possible.

Most recently, the Rakuten Stories channel premiered the highly anticipated docuseries The Giants, which follows the incredible careers of Konishiki, Musashimaru, Takamiyama and Akebono – sumo legends who rose from humble beginnings in Hawaii to become the first foreigners to reach the highest ranks of the sport. Also coming soon to Rakuten Stories is Ona Carbonell: Starting Over following the Olympic synchronized swimmer as she returns to the pool after starting a family, and Champions, which meets some of the heroes across generations in women’s football, including Alexia Putellas, Wendie Renard and Lucy Bronze.

Rakuten TV sits within Rakuten Advertising’s unified portfolio, where advertisers can buy media across a variety of channels. Drawing on first-party data and extensive audience insights, Rakuten Advertising and Rakuten TV offer brands unique discoverability, combining the targeting and tracking capabilities of digital formats with the advantages of TV.

The continued expansion of Rakuten Stories adds to thousands of high-quality free titles already available on Rakuten TV via free channels and on demand. The Rakuten TV platform, which boasts a reach of over 90 million households clocking up over 5bn minutes of free content watched and generating more than 1.5Bn ad impressions in 2021. Rakuten TV original sports documentaries are extremely popular with a 30-50-year-old, male skewing demographic, making them a perfect fit for advertisers looking to reach a highly engaged audience.

Rakuten TV linear channels are currently accessible for FREE on the Rakuten TV app on Samsung and LG Smart TV devices. Users can easily launch the app with a single click through the branded remote-control button and the pre-installed app.