Providing Market Intelligence for 40 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

Protecting Broadband Networks by Securing the Smart Home

Securing the Internet of Things (IoT) from hackers and cyber crooks needs to be a top concern for manufacturers, consumers and broadband network providers. More than 26 million U.S. households own...

The Sound Of The Internet Of Things (And Why It Matters For Brands)

In the next five years, Business Insider estimates that brands are going to spend around $5 trillion on the Internet of Things. For a third year in a row, the subject has dominated CES, the global con...

Music streaming leads on smartphones

Streaming music is the most popular way consumers spend time on their smartphones, according to market research firm Parks Associates, significantly outpacing playing games and watching video clips....

10 Things To Know About Online-To-Offline Marketing From 2017

A majority of consumers already perform ‘connected activities’ while driving, like making voice calls through a built-in interface, according to research from Parks Associates. From the article "10...