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 Associates Study Finds 30% of Security Dealers Sold DIY Systems in 2023

Parks Associates research finds security dealers are branching out into new areas to bolster revenues and add applications that require or enrich professional installation and monitoring. The firm’s 1...

Analysis: Viewers crave streaming simplicity not more fragmentation

Parks Associates reveals that only 5% of U.S. households rely solely on traditional pay TV. Instead, smart TV apps have emerged as the new living room entertainment hub. From the article, "Analysis...

IRobot faces a murky future amid rising Roomba competitors

The company is still “number one,” said Elizabeth Parks, president of market research firm Parks Associates in Dallas. But it’s a shaky number one. Parks estimates that iRobot had nearly two-thirds of...

Energy, security, automation: Converging into peace of mind

Parks Associates latest research shows 70% of US internet households report spending $100 or more per month on their electricity and 62% think the electricity costs are too high, an increase of eight...