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

Report: Consumers’ Growing Appetite For Solar, Storage And Bundled Home Energy Services

The number of broadband households that have adopted rooftop solar panels doubled to 4 percent in the period 2013 to 2015. Seven percent of U.S. broadband households said they plan to purchase solar p...

ONLINE VIDEO ROUND-UP: Twitter, Facebook, Versy Make Big Moves

A recent study by Parks Associates claims that more millennials pay for online video than any other age groups. Highlights include that 23 percent of those surveyed only watch video online, and 61 per...

Here's Why Facebook Might Need To Work Faster To Stop The Flow Of Fake News

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publishes his manifesto outlining the company's ongoing commitment to filter out false news and hoaxes without undermining free speech, the findings from a new study by...

OTT Video News, Deals, Launches and Products

Some 63% of US broadband households now subscribe to an OTT video service, rising from 57% at the beginning of this year, according to Parks Associates. Parks also updated its rankings for the top OTT...