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Streaming sports helps fuel sales of Roku devices during Q2

The Roku Pro Series smart TV set. (Courtesy photo)
The Roku Pro Series smart TV set. (Courtesy photo)

Roku is benefitting substantially from the trend of live sports migrating over to streaming services, the company said on Thursday.

The affirmation was made as part of Roku’s second quarter (Q2) financial earnings for 2024, through which it disclosed certain key metrics like platform and device revenue, the number of homes using Roku devices and time spent streaming content were all up on a year-over basis.



Overall revenue clocked in at $968.2 million during Q2, representing a year-over increase of 14 percent, juiced by gains across all of Roku’s key business segments.

Platform revenue — which includes the sale of certain third-party streaming subscriptions to consumers, as well as advertisements purchased against the home screens of Roku devices and within content streamed for free through the Roku Channel — rose 11 percent to $824.3 million. Compared to Q1, platform revenue was up slightly more than 9 percent.

Device revenue — which counts the sales of Roku’s streaming hardware like its standalone pucks and sticks, and Roku-powered smart TVs — climbed nearly 40 percent to $143.8 million. Compared to Q1, device revenue increased around 14 percent.

The number of homes using Roku jumped to 83.6 million, or 2 million more than counted during Q1, the company revealed. On a year-over basis, Roku’s streaming household count increased 14 percent.

Those homes are streaming more live and on-demand content through Roku’s platform than ever before, with the company noting that 30.1 billion hours of content was streamed during Q2, or 20 percent higher than the previous year. The number was slightly less than the 30.8 billion hours of content streamed during Q1.

Gross profit clocked in at $424.7 million, or 12 percent higher on a year-over basis, while average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key metric evaluated by Wall Street analysts and investors — was flat at $40.68.

Shares of Roku jumped 7 percent in after-hours trading.

Executives said the company was bolstered by a trend of more sports moving over to streaming services, something that Roku itself has helped accelerate. During the quarter, Roku revealed it had clinched the rights to Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Sunday morning games away from Comcast’s NBC Universal, with the games offered for free through The Roku Channel.

Roku has also worked with sports leagues and media rights holders to develop franchise-specific “zones” that collate highlights, clips and analysis from the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, MLB and other sports leagues, with those zones available on all supported Roku devices and smart TVs sold in North America.

Roku said the number of streaming hours “from the Roku Sports Experience more than tripled” on a year-over basis, though the company did not provide any specific data to that effect.

The company is also focused on bringing more of its smart TV models to consumers in the United States, and recently inked an agreement with brick-and-mortar retailer Target to begin selling its own manufactured smart TVs in their stores. During the quarter, Roku began selling a new line-up of premium smart TVs under the “Roku Pro Series” brand, which it said received strong reviews from tech pundits.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting.
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