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.
A report released by Parks Associates last year found that small, local security dealer businesses are struggling to keep up with national tech-first, online-first players with a presence in multiple...
Elizabeth Parks, president and CMO at Parks Associates: Smart cameras and video doorbells are popular, showing an increase in adoption and high intentions for the next year…. Bundling these security d...
The average U.S. household now has 17 connected devices and Parks Associates recognizes that more and more of in-home technology is going to energy management. Research group Parks Associates h...
Too few customers are familiar with their energy-provider’s special rate programs, according to market research firm Parks Associates. With many service providers offering special rates as part of ene...
