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

Burning Los Angeles homes livestreamed their own destruction as owners watched

Forty-three percent of U.S. households with internet access have a security product with online capabilities such as a self-monitored smart camera, video doorbell or a professionally monitored securit...

22% of US households get bundled Internet, mobile services

New data from Parks Associates shows 22% of US households now receive their Internet and mobile services as part of a bundle. New Parks Associates research released at CES® 2025 shows that 22% of U...

Parks Associates: Expect Consolidation Among Streamers to Accelerate in 2025

There are now 348 standalone streaming services in the United States and Canada, down slightly from a post-pandemic high of 366 in 2022 but up significantly from 2015, when there were just 154, ac...

Amazon's Ring announces smart smoke alarm as CES tech-palooza kicks off

Amazon doesn’t disclose unit sales for its Ring division, but Ring and rival home security company SimpliSafe comprise one-fifth of the U.S. market for professional monitoring systems, according to da...