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

Sling TV Now Lets You Share An Account — For An Extra $20

“The decision to launch as its own separate multi-stream service was influenced by our customers. Two of the top requests we receive are for a multi-stream capability and for FOX programming. As baseb...

70% Of US Households Save Money With Smart Energy

Parks Associates announced new home energy management data from The Evolution of Home Energy Management showing 70% of U.S. households with smart energy devices report saving money due to reduced ener...

Sling Becomes 6th Most Subscribed Internet Video Service As The Entire Industry Sees Growth

Parks Associates, a market researcher that surveys consumers on online TV-viewing habits, said that cord cutters and shavers (those downgrading from traditional pay TV service) are still the key custo...

DirecTV Now Goes 'Gangbusters,' And AT&T Stops The Bleeding

Before news broke Friday that AT&T has stopped bleeding TV customers, Parks Associates analyst Brett Sappington tried to put a finger on what sort of subscriber numbers for the company’s new streaming...