Roku Becomes Latest Streaming Giant To Launch Its Own SmartTV Line
roku incl. ROKU 4.41% has launched its own smart TV brand, joining other major players in the streaming industry in its quest to control user access to other streaming applications.
San Jose, California-based Roku already serves as the streaming hub for many Americans as the dominant manufacturer of streaming boxes and dongles. Its operating system is also used in many smart TVs from other companies.
In recent years, the company has faced increasing competition from streaming companies. Amazon.com Inc., another major manufacturer of streaming boxes and dongles, has its own brand of smart TVs. In 2021, Comcast introduced XClass TV to promote its own streaming service, NBCUniversal's Peacock app.
Getting more people to trust their platform is critical to Roku's business, as the company makes most of its revenue from ads, not hardware sales. Roku sells all ads shown on its own Roku Channel streaming service and sells some ads shown on other streaming services that appear on Roku devices.
Roku's manufacturing partners release TVs in conjunction with Roku's competitors in operating systems. TCL , a longtime manufacturing partner with Roku, released TVs in 2020 that use the Google Smart TV operating system. Walmart Inc., which has merged smart TVs with Roku under the Walmart Onn brand, will launch smart TVs based on Comcast's operating system this year.
Roku declined to name the manufacturer of its new smart TVs, but said the relationship would give it more control over the final product. Roku previously owned its software, but has had to negotiate new hardware features and other hardware design changes, according to people familiar with the matter. For Roku-branded TVs, Roku will have full control over the design.
Roku announced two new TV lines at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday: the junior Roku Select series (starting at $119) and the more expensive Roku Plus series (up to $999). Roku will sell the TVs through retail partners and on its website.
Email Patience Haggin apatient.haggin@wsj.com
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Appears in the January 5, 2023 print issue as "Roku adds its own brand of smart TVs to boost streaming."
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