Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Wall Street isn’t sure Roku can lead cord cutters to the promised land

One of the secrets of Roku's success has been its expansion beyond its roots as a set top box maker (a term the company tries to avoid). To do this, Roku CEO Anthony Wood built a loyal customer following by moving the company away from only selling its own boxes, instead now licensing its software to TV makers, so they can ship screens with the company's streaming TV platform built-in. This is a much higher margin business than selling streaming hardware, and almost one-third of so-called smart TVs sold last year included Roku's software.

Roku has also developed and licensed streaming programming of its own, backed by advertising. The Roku Channel, available on all its platforms, was 2019's most popular ad-backed streaming channel, ahead of rivals Pluto TV and Crackle, according to market research firm Parks Associates. That's another business that yields higher margins than producing set top boxes.

From the article "Wall Street isn’t sure Roku can lead cord cutters to the promised land" by Aaron Pressman.

Previously In The News

Parks Says ESPN+ No. 1 Sports Streaming Service Among U.S. Internet Households

Disney’s standalone sports-streaming service is the No. 1 such platform among U.S. internet households, according to new data from Parks Associates. The platform (19%) topped NFL+ (10%), according to...

ESPN+ leads US sports streaming as cable sports audience shrinks

A new Parks Associates study reveals that 19% of US internet households subscribe to ESPN+, making it the leading sports-specific streaming service. NFL+ follows with 10%, as streaming continues to re...

Sports streamers are keeping more subscribers after seasons end

New data from Parks Associates shows use of sports streamers is on the rise. For a long time, sports leagues were leery of streaming platforms, knowing they could make more revenue by putting games...

Apple now has 69% of the smart tag market among US Internet households

Smart tag adoption rose to 12% in US Internet households last year with Apple still leading the market, according to Parks Associates.  The research group says that’s up from 7% in 2022. Consum...