Streaming hardware maker Roku continued to add users during the company’s third financial quarter of 2023, ending the period with more than 75.8 million active accounts, according to its latest financial report.
The figure represented a 16 percent year-over-year growth as more customers took advantage of Roku’s low-cost streaming media players and budget-friendly television sets, the latter of which the company recently started making on its own after utilizing third-party partnerships for some time.
Total revenue came in at $912 million, a year-over increase of 20 percent and around 7.6 percent higher on a sequential basis. Of that, $786.8 million was attributed to Roku’s streaming platform, which includes sales of third party subscriptions and advertisements that run against content in its free, ad-supported service The Roku Channel.
Device revenue, which has lagged for some time, also increased during the quarter, coming in at $125.2 million, or 33 percent higher compared to last year. The figure was 21 percent higher compared to Q2.
In a letter to shareholders released on Wednesday, Roku attributed its revenue gains to “strong performance in content distribution and video advertising, along with unit sales of Roku-branded TVs, which launched in March 2023.”
Those Roku-branded TVs are sold at places like Best Buy and through the Roku website, and range in size from 24 inches to 75 inches. The TVs compete against similar offerings from third party brands like TCL, Hisense and Walmart’s Onn brand, which license the Roku streaming operating system for their own models.
Third party manufacturing relationships are still important to Roku, particularly as it tries to push into new markets overseas, including Europe where other streaming platforms like Amazon’s Fire TV and Google’s Android TV have dominated for some time.
“Branded TVs…drove a higher portion of net adds in active accounts than the streaming players in international markets,” Charlie Collier, a former Fox executive who now serves as the president of Roku’s media division, said during a conference call with reporters and investors on Wednesday.
Collier said Roku expects to continue to see gains in sales and adoption of its streaming operating system, but was cautious that the advertising market would continue to recover into and after the key holiday shopping season.
Roku’s stock price ended the day at $59.70 per share. The stock was up more than 10 percent in after-hours trading.
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Sources:
Financial information was obtained via Roku’s third-quarter earnings report as released to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and on the Roku investors website on Wednesday. Quotes and information attributed to Roku Media President Charlie Collier is from a conference call with investors and reporters held by Roku executives on Wednesday, shortly after the company’s earnings release. Year-over percentages were reported from Roku’s Q3 earnings report; sequential percentages were calculated by The Desk after comparing Roku’s Q3 earnings to its financial disclosure report from three months ago.
