Roku Hits 70M Actives, Intros Branded TVs

Streaming distribution pioneer Roku, struggling to regain its financial mojo, is trumpeting its active accounts growth along with its introduction of its first branded TV sets.

Active Roku accounts now exceed 70 million globally — up from 60.1 million as of Q4 2021, according to the company’s own preliminary estimated data.

Global streaming hours on Roku accounts totaled 23.9 billion in Q4, and 87.4 billion for full-year 2022, up 19% versus full-year 2021, the company said.

Roku remains the leading TV streaming platform in North America and Mexico, based on hours streamed, according to Hypothesis Group December 2022 data.

On Wednesday, Roku announced the launch of Roku Select and Roku Plus Series televisions — the first to be both designed and made by the company. The 11 TV models, which will be available in the U.S. this spring, will range in size from 24” to 75”, and in price from $199 to $999.

The move is designed to help Roku build its install base as rivals including Samsung and Google expand their own platforms.

Roku, which derives revenue from device hardware sales, licensed software installs on other manufacturers’ smart TVs, commissions, and advertising, saw its stock price drop more than 80% last year, even as it expanded beyond TV-related offerings into smart-home products such as cameras and video doorbells.

The company has attributed much of the value decline — and its projection of a year-over-year decline in total Q4 2022 revenue — to a slowdown in advertising.

While its Q3 2022 platform revenue increased 15% YoY, to $670 million, that was down from an 18% YoY gain, to $764 million, in Q2.

“Advertising spend on our platform continues to grow more slowly than our beginning-of-year forecast due to current weakness in the overall TV ad market and the ad scatter market in particular,” Roku stated in its shareholder letter.

Roku’s total revenue rose 12%, to $761 million, in Q3, but it saw a net loss of $122.2 million, compared to a net gain of $68.9 million in Q3 2021.

Roku laid off about 200 U.S. employees, or about 7% of its workforce, in November.

Next story loading loading..