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

HDTV Antenna Review: Top Picks From CR's Latest Tests

Market research firm Parks Associates says that one-fifth of U.S. homes with broadband access now use an antenna to get live TV. “Digital antennas are experiencing a resurgence as consumers consider o...

The Multiple OTT Service Explosion

OTT video is firmly established in the U.S. entertainment marketplace, and new research from Parks Associates only puts an exclamation point on the new reality of how Americans consume video entertain...

Report: Over 2M U.S. households will have a self-monitored security system in 2019

According to a new report from Parks Associates, the proliferation of DIY solutions continues to have significant impact on the resident security market as the research firm predicts that more than tw...

What’s Old Is New Again

While sales of vinyl records have been rising for a while now (Consumers like the sound quality and like the feel of vinyl records.), 2016 was a banner year. Sales hit a 28-year high -- led by David B...