Roku announced today that there are currently 27 million active accounts using its living room streaming devices, up about 40 percent year-over-year. Additionally, the firm says that its users streamed 7.3 billion hours of video collectively in Q4 2018, a gain of 68 percent YOY.
“Strong active account growth and accelerating streaming hours point to consumers’ growing enthusiasm for streaming, making Roku America’s largest and fastest growing TV streaming distribution platform,” Roku CEO Anthony Wood said in a prepared statement. “In 2018, we maintained our leadership in streaming players, licensed smart TVs and TV streaming hours. Roku continues to bring viewers more choice, great value, a compelling user experience – and lots of TV fun.”
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It’s unusual to get hard numbers like these, so this news is even more interesting than usual. Roku was probably inspired to get more specific thanks to increased competition in this space, including Apple, which is widely expected to launch its own streaming video service sometime this year.
Separately, Roku also announced a new partnership with Westinghouse to product new Roku TV models in the first half of 2019.
“The Roku brand is synonymous with streaming and its popular smart TV platform helps us offer a content-rich experience for our customers that is very easy to use,” Westinghouse Electronics Vice-President Brett Hunt said. “We can focus on building eco-friendly, energy-saving displays while Roku manages the smart TV platform offering an overall incredible value.”
According to Roku, its TV platform has seen lots of momentum, and it claims that one-in-four smart TVs sold in the United States during the first nine months of 2018 were Roku TVs. Through these TVs and its living room devices, Roku provides its users with thousands of free and paid channels. And the firm now offers a Roku Channel—which will soon go head-to-head with Apple’s coming offering—that offers 10,000 free ad-supported movies and TV episodes; Roku Channel will soon offer its users the ability to trial and subscribe to premium subscriptions too.
wocowboy
Premium Member<blockquote><em><a href="#392629">In reply to TroyTruax:</a></em></blockquote><p>I bought one of the 4k Roku Streaming players when they were on sale during the holidays to see what the fuss is all about with this platform. I have a 2-year old LG 4k OLED TV that I have had an 4k Apple TV connected to and that has been working fine. The Roku refuses to display 4k content because it claims the TV is not capable of the correct HDCP copy protection version, so I returned it to Wal Mart and will continue using my Apple TV. I tried the Roku on each one of the HDMI ports on the TV thinking that only one of them might have the proper capabilities but no dice, it gives the same complaint on each input. So, the Roku is not that great in my opinion when compared to the Apple TV. I have one BIG gripe with the Apple TV, that the YouTube app does not support 4k, but that is a Google/YouTube problem, not an Apple problem. And I can use the LG's internal YouTube app to watch 4k content if I want. </p>
Bats
<p>I wasn't a big Roku fan. I felt that the UI was super-ultra boring as opposed to the more livelier looking UI of the Amazon Fire Stick. Today, my feelings have changed about it. It's still boring, but it has all the app to watch everything and that's what matters. Amazon can't say that and neither can Android TV. For the Roku, you even have mainstream networks from other countries developing an streaming app for the platform, which is key for all the legal immigrants who migrated to the USA from their home country. </p><p><br></p><p>I actually happen have the Roku Ultra, Fire TV, and the Nvidia Shield occupying 3/4 HDMI ports on my personal TV. However, for the rest of the house (and my parents) it's all Roku. Again, it's still boring, but it's simple, straight-forward, and has everything. </p><p><br></p><p>Right now, my most used streaming device is the Nvidia Shield. The reason why I use it is because it's the best platform to watch YouTube videos. That's because you can perform a voice search for video topics you're looking for rather than do remote-typing. However, when I need to watch something else, I use my Roku. </p><p><br></p><p>Right now Roku is the de facto standard for cord-cutters. It's the only platform that can support all major cord cutting services. Both Amazon and </p><p><br></p><p>Right now Roku has got to be the "de facto" standard for cord-cutters. It's the only platform that can support all major cord cutting services. One cannot use YouTube TV with Amazon Fire TV and Android TV doesn't do DirecTV NOW, despite the fact DirecTV is coming out with their own Android TV Box. </p><p><br></p><p>Right now Roku has got to be the "de facto" standard for cord-cutters. It's the only platform that can support all major cord cutting services. One cannot use YouTube TV with Amazon Fire TV and Android TV doesn't do DirecTV NOW, despite the fact DirecTV is coming out with their own Android TV Box. </p><p><br></p><p>Right now Roku has got to be the "de facto" standard for cord-cutters. It's the only platform that can support all major cord cutting services. One cannot use YouTube TV with Amazon Fire TV and Android TV doesn't do DirecTV NOW, despite the fact DirecTV is coming out with their own Android TV Box. </p><p><br></p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#392630">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Apple TV. Supports all those options.</p><p><br></p><p>(I say this slightly fearing I’m responding to some sort of shill for Roku.)</p>