• by Wayne Friedman , 9 hours ago

Roku's rapidly growing advertising revenue helped fuel its "platform" revenue, rising 17% to $1.07 billion in the third quarter.

The streaming distributor points to expanding third-party demand-side platforms (DSP) integrations as well as rising video impressions, especially coming from programmatic systems.

Roku says streaming hours on its platforms have climbed 4.5 billion year-over-year to 36.5 billion during the third quarter.

Roku Ads Manager, its self-serve platform for small and medium-sized businesses, also showed growth -- especially from digital marketers focused on performance around e-commerce, mobile apps and gaming.

All this helped Roku climb to $24.5 million in net income, reversing a $9.0 million loss in the third quarter of 2024.

This followed $10.5 million second-quarter net income, the first profitable period since 2021.

Third-quarter adjusted cash flow (earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) grew 19% to $116.9 million.

Analysts' estimates were set a bit higher, however, and Roku stock was down 5% to $100.03 in aftermarket trading.

Michael Morris, media analyst at Guggenheim Securities, said after an earnings call with Roku that executives expressed the deal with Amazon DSP should yield "meaningful" results in 2026.

In addition, Morris estimates that it will reach 96 million by the end of next quarter, and the company anticipates that it will soon reach 100 million streaming homes.