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

Most Broadband Users Still Pay For Television

Fortunately for pay-television providers, Kelling is not alone in what the industry calls “over-the-top” video consumption. According to the market research firm Parks Associates, 81 percent of U.S. h...

Apple Preps Amazon Echo Rival – Is This The Connected Intelligence Moment?

At the moment, hospitality, retail, and even QSR brands are examining the role that voice-activated assistants could play in complementing service and sales staffs at their respective hotels and store...

The Top Retailers in Home Entertainment 2019: The Golden 12

Amazon also offers transactional (both purchase and rental) and subscription streaming through Amazon Prime Video, continuing to forge partnerships with cablers such as Cox, which added the service to...

Roku's early success magnifies Blue Apron, Snap failures

Investors are still apparently eager for more as the company continues to pivot toward a services-based model from its current focus making boxes for streaming television—a focus that, so far, has bee...