Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Roku OS Missing Features Explained: Discovery and Developer Limits

Roku's market position has a way of making the platform look more capable than it is. Across U.S. broadband households, Roku OS accounts for 28% of connected TV platform usage, ahead of Samsung Tizen at 23%, with Amazon Fire TV, LG webOS, and Vizio SmartCast trailing at a distance, according to Parks Associates research.    

Parks Associates Director Michael Goodman puts the stakes plainly: operating systems determine what content consumers see, how services are positioned, and how advertising is delivered. With AI-driven search and  personalization becoming the new competitive standard for TV operating systems, the firm argues that platform control will only matter more in the years ahead. This is the context in which Roku's specific shortcomings land.           

What they may not yet prove is that Roku has closed the gap on the deeper AI-driven discovery layer Parks Associates identifies as the next competitive frontier. The firm argues that AI-driven personalization, the kind that doesn't just catalog content but anticipates it, is where platform competition is heading. Roku's What to Watch feature aggregates titles across services, which is useful.

Roku's 28% share is stable and its value proposition is real. According to Parks Associates, the platform earns its position for a wide range of users, particularly those who primarily want free content, simple setup, and a reliable experience without active management. Nothing in this analysis changes that.

Parks Associates projects that AI-driven personalization will become the standard competitive axis for TV operating systems in the coming years, with platform ecosystems growing more consequential as that shift plays out.

From the Cord-Cutters.gadgethacks article, "Roku vs other smart TV platforms: default choice versus deliberate choice

Previously In The News

Do you share your TV logins with friends and family? Cable operators are coming after you

About one-third of internet users stream cable TV without paying for it by using credentials of someone they don't live with, according to Parks Associates. The TV industry's losses from password shar...

Should AT&T listen to activist investor or stay the course?

HBO Max has become the bellwether that investors are watching to see whether AT&T can execute its entertainment vision. “Out of all their financials, it’s just a small part of AT&T,” said Brett Sap...

Apriva and CardSmith Bring Mobile Payment to Campus Cards

The leading provider of Cloud-Based campus card payment solutions, CardSmith, and Apriva, the leading provider of end-to-end wireless transactions and secure information solutions, announced that they...

The Apple TV is lagging behind its biggest rivals

When it comes to streaming set-top boxes, the Apple TV may get most of the attention, but it's not the device used by most in the US for streaming video. According to a new study by the research fi...