• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 7, 2025

Did we get it all wrong about Roku -- as far as its competition is concerned?

Roku is now in 90 million streaming homes through all its devices -- a bit more than the homes Netflix has currently. That isn’t their main competition -- not for the long term, anyway.

As the biggest distributor of streaming apps, it goes into more households than almost all the legacy pay TV companies combined -- including Comcast, Charter, DirecTV, Dish Network and Altice.

Those companies -- while big -- no longer have an intense focus on the cable TV network business, or on the advertising revenue in those regions. It’s all about broadband.

For Roku, it continues to do what any other modern business does, especially modern media business -- find ways to extend its business, with Roku-branded TV sets.

But there is more.

In recent years -- somewhat quietly -- it has been moving into smart-home devices -- including indoor and outdoor cameras, video doorbells, smart bulbs, and even light strips. Maybe its competition is Amazon (with brands like Alexa and Echo), Google (with Nest), Ring, Xiaomi, Ecobee, Arlo, Blink, Philips, GE, and TP-Link.

Analysts believe its simplicity of access for consumers is a draw -- it's easier to turn on one’s TV, rather than always using your phone to see who might be at the door.

Many analysts still marvel that Netflix pulled off an incredible upset -- blowing past Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global and causing major disruption in the rapidly moving streaming space.

Despite some early analysts' assumptions that it would be a tough road, Roku has pulled off its own industry upset -- against Comcast, Charter and all the rest of those legacy pay TV providers.

Now those companies are trying to bundle up streaming apps into their legacy, linear TV network bundles.

The lesson those legacy pay TV providers learned was to use the wire into the home to offer up multiple services.

Roku has done its own version of that in the streaming space with its devices, owned branded TV sets, and license deals with TV set manufacturers.

What is next? Just watch your TV sets for coming attractions. TV screens in EV cars, perhaps?