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

Google's DIY Security Exit Spurs Doubts About Segment's Future: Parks

Google's decision to discontinue its three-year-old Nest Secure do-it-yourself security system wasn’t a surprise, given Google’s $450 million investment in security stalwart ADT in August, Parks Assoc...

Report: Antenna Only Homes Increase to 15 Percent

While we’re certainly no longer in the days where people had a pair of rabbit ears on top of their TV sets, the use of antennas are making a little bit of a comeback according to a recent report from...

Smart home market still small in Europe, but with many players pushing it forward adoption will rise

Other barriers for increasing adoption are concerns about security and privacy. With more reports in mainstream media about smart home devices being hacked, the public awareness of this issue has incr...

Could a Button for Improved AI on Galaxy S8 Help Samsung Move Past Its Recent Stumble?

Advanced voice control technology is a growing good bet, especially when it comes to consumers on the younger end of the demographic spectrum. Millennials show particular comfort with voice control of...