Roku, Inc.

Roku, Inc. is an American public company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 2002, Roku manufactures and sells streaming devices, smart TVs, speakers and smart home products. It also licenses its proprietary operating system to other manufacturers, offers channel subscriptions and serves targeted ads to viewers on its streaming platform, and operates an ad-supported streaming channel.
History
Roku was founded in October 2002 as a limited liability company (LLC), by ReplayTV founder Anthony Wood. Roku (六) means "six" in the Japanese language, to represent the fact that Roku is the sixth company Wood started.
In April 2007 Wood was named a vice president of Netflix.
After Netflix decided to not build its own player, a new Roku company was incorporated in February 2008, based in Palo Alto, California, with Netflix as an investor of $6 million, to build a player.
Later in 2008 company headquarters moved to Saratoga, California, further south in Silicon Valley.
A round of venture capital funding from Menlo Ventures was announced in October 2008.
Another round of about $8.4 million was disclosed in 2009.
In 2015, the company announced it would be sub-leasing the buildings in Los Gatos, California from Netflix.
On September 28, 2017, the company held an initial public offering of stock and began trading on the Nasdaq exchange.
In 2017, Roku launched its self-serving advertising product to allow advertisers to serve ads to Roku's users. These include video ads, interactive video ads, audience development promotions and brand sponsorships. This was made possible through Roku allowing advertisers to transition from standard cable TV advertising to Roku's streaming platform. In 2016, Roku partnered with Magna, a media firm that specializes advertising, in order to incorporate targeted advertising on its streaming platform. In order to measure the success of its advertising efforts success, Roku partnered with Nielsen, a company that specializes in advertising effectiveness. In November 2019, Roku announced its acquisition of dataxu video advertising platform, for $150 million in cash and stocks. Roku shares rose more than two percent subsequent to the announcement. In April 2022, the company was said to be launching a new ad program to allow advertisers to serve "targeted ads in real time". Roku also sells channel subscription on its platform, and receives a cut of the subscription sales.
In July 2019 Roku started moving to a new headquarters in San Jose, with plans to vacate offices subleased from Netflix.
On January 8, 2021, Roku announced it would acquire rights to Quibi's content, for an amount less than $100 million, and that all of Quibi's 75 programs would be available on their streaming platform, The Roku Channel.
On March 19, 2021, TZP Growth Partners completed the sale of This Old House Ventures to Roku. All 1,500 episodes of Ask This Old House and This Old House will be made available to owners of Roku streaming products free with ads and through their dedicated 24/7 Streaming TV channel. PBS will still have rights to air episodes on their platforms.
Legacy products
Roku's consumer products included:
PhotoBridge HD1000, a system for displaying images on a high-definition television, as well as streaming MPEG video. The unit has four card readers on the front and can read from a CompactFlash Card type II, Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card, or SmartMedia Card
Roku SoundBridge, a network music player
SoundBridge Radio, a network music player with built-in speakers and subwoofer, AM‑FM receiver, volume-ramping alarm clock, preset buttons, SD slot, and headphone jack
For retailers, Roku also produced:
BrightSign solid-state media player, designed to drive HD displays in a retail environment.
Roku's audio products did not use internal storage but relied on Wi-Fi or Ethernet to stream digital audio over a network, either from Internet radio or a computer attached to the same network. Roku introduced the Radio Roku Internet radio directory in August 2007; Radio Roku provides a directory of Internet stations, accessible from a web browser or from SoundBridge players.
Roku streaming players
Roku produces numerous set-top boxes for delivery of over-the-top content. Content is provided by Roku partners, identified using the "channel" vernacular. Each separate channel supports content from one partner, although some content partners have more than one channel. In May 2011, Roku stated the Streaming Players had over one million viewers and had delivered 15 million channel downloads.
Roku devices support both on-demand content and live streaming. For live TV streams, Roku supports Apple HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) adaptive streaming technology. Both free and paid "channels" are available, as are some games.
Roku Streaming Players are open-platform devices with a freely available SDK that enables anyone to create new channels. The channels are written in a Roku-specific language called BrightScript, a scripting language the company calls "similar to Visual Basic".
Roku OS and Roku TVs
Roku licenses its streaming technology and proprietary operating system ("Roku OS") to set-top box providers such as Telstra, and television manufacturers such as Hisense, Hitachi, JVC, Philips, Sharp and TCL. It also offers a "Roku Channel Store" running on its streaming platform to distribute channels such as Netflix.
Roku announced its first branded smart TV in early 2014 and it was released in late 2014. These TVs are manufactured by companies other than Roku, and use the Roku user interface as the "brain" of the TV. Roku TVs are updated in the same way as Roku's streaming devices, though on a slightly modified schedule due to the extra features and picture/audio adjustment options the Roku TV menu interface must support. Several manufacturers offer added features for over-the-air reception for added cord-cutter value, including extended electronic program guides which provide more information than regularly sent by the PSIP protocol, and over-the-air program search integrated into the Roku search system. Also offered are program buffers and pausing with the use of a 16GB+ USB flash drive.
In January 2023, Variety reported Roku's claim of having more than 70 million customer accounts globally, and cited "TVision data" which claimed that more than a third of the US smart TVs were using the Roku OS. In the same month, Roku was reported to have launched its own smart TVs.
The Roku Channel
Roku launched its own free, ad-supported streaming channel on its devices in 2017. At launch it included licensed content from studios such as Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., Disney, and Universal Pictures, as well as from The Roku Channel content publishers American Classics, FilmRise, Nosey, OVGuide, Popcornflix, Vidmark, and YuYu. It implemented an ad revenue sharing model with content providers. On August 8, 2018, The Roku Channel became available on web as well. Roku also added the "Featured Free" section as the top section of its main menu from where users can get access to direct streaming of shows and movies from its partners. On April 7, 2020, The Roku Channel launched in the UK, with a different selection of movies and TV shows. The Roku Channel is also available on other smart TV platforms such as Fire TV, Apple TV with AirPlay, Google TV, and Samsung TV.
Roku Smart Home, Roku Soundbars
In January 2018, Roku launched a licensing program allowing other manufacturers to use its soundbar and speaker designs, as well as the Roku operating system. According to Variety in September 2019, Roku was introducing soundbar and subwoofer products to "marry TV streaming with smart sound". In January 2023, CNN reported that Roku was introducing its "Roku Smart Home" line that included light strips, bulbs, security cameras and a video doorbell. In May 2023, it was reported that home monitoring devices that could be accessed using a Roku device were added to Roku's Smart Home line.
References
External links
Roku Website
Electronics companies of the United States
Companies based in San Jose, California
2002 establishments in California
Electronics companies established in 2002
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
2017 initial public offerings