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.
“What Frndly TV delivers is very focused—it’s not trying to be all things for all people,” said Paul Erickson, a senior analyst at Parks Associates, a research firm. From the article "Family-Focuse...
It is important to understand the different types of services offered and how Parks Associates defines them, as well as examples of some of the major players in each category. OTT services experien...
Home surveillance cameras—from Ring, Nest, Arlo and others—are the eyes and ears of many neighborhoods. Around 14% of U.S. households with broadband have installed an internet-connected camera, accord...
San Jose, Calif.-based Roku is the nation’s largest maker of streaming hardware—accounting for about 37% of the U.S. market, according to Parks Associates—but it derives most of its revenue from adver...
