Roku, the streaming hardware maker, is reportedly looking to branch out beyond the streaming boxes and dongles that currently make up its product stack. That’s according to an Insider report. Apparently, Roku wants to make its own TVs.
The claim is backed up by a person who participated in a Roku focus group and another person said to be an executive familiar with Roku’s strategy. That being said, this is still just a rumour so have your grain of salt at the ready.
Roku’s TVs might be worth watching out for
Roku’s claim to fame previously came from the stellar streaming boxes and dongles the company makes. We liked one of them so much we gave it a 2021 Stuff gadget award. It’s also the most popular smart TV operating system in the US, according to NPD data from 2020/21.
The executive quoted in Insider’s report says the company has had its eye on making its own TVs for over a year. In the company’s recent earnings call, its CFO cited the global supply constraints as one of the factors the company missed its subscriber growth goals. This was presumably also one of the factors that led the company down the whole ‘let’s make our own TVs’ path.
With the rise of the smart TV, consumers are increasingly opting for smart TVs that offer streaming apps natively. If they can afford it, that is.
Roku won’t want to just drop its wallet-friendly dongles and streaming boxes. But it presumably does want to get the people upgrading from a streaming box to a TV to buy a Roku TV. But that’s not going to be as easy as just taping a Roku streaming dongle to a TV.