What Your Missing About Roku..

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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I think what folks are missing about Roku is that it will be the platform where the next generation OTT networks will be born. Sure Amazon will invite Google, Apple, and Disney apps. But does it really want to host ad-supported apps that will eventually be there competition on their own platform?

Roku is neutral and will encourage these types of platforms to be on Roku. Then once they go viral and get an audience it will force the big boys to adopt it.

Rokia is digital real estate in the OTT world. Amazon or Apple can pay them to have their content the first thing you see in the menu. If Disney wants to get it’s subscriptions up it can pay Roku more money during certain times of the month. A lot of folks have missed the boat on this company because they thought of it as an hardware company. Hardware was just the Trojan horse. Google was smart enough to buy Android, but it might be too late to buy Roku if it has a much better chance to be the operating system of OTT. We will see but I have definitely been onboard.

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Ok, but what is their durable competitive advantage? Why can’t another enter the space and compete, thus further fragmenting consumer choice? Or better yet, build a better approach? Aren’t ROKU offerings a transitional solution in an early stage, developing space, rather than an enduring platform that dominates into the future.

Intrigued, but not yet sold…

Swift…

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Ok, but what is their durable competitive advantage? Why can’t another enter the space and compete, thus further fragmenting consumer choice? Or better yet, build a better approach?

This remains my question, as there are so many devices other than Roku on which so many OTT offerings can be utilized.

I don’t get it with Roku, but I am glad I closed out my thumbs down position on CAPS back when it was only at $36.92, 355 days ago.
http://caps.fool.com/Player/volfan84.aspx

-volfan84
no ROKU position

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I’M JUST AN OLD GUY THAT GETS LOST IN SOME OF THESE GREAT POSTS. WHAT IS OTT

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As another poster stated, the market is down to Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Apple TV is next to awful and only Appleheads use it. Google Chromecast isn’t getting traction either.

So there’s 3 of the biggest names in tech. Apple, Google, Amazon. If they aren’t able to stop the rise of ROKU, good luck rest of the world. Fire TV will be a much tougher sell imbedded. Device wise, I have 3 and love it. This is likely a duopoly going forward.

TV manufacturers will want Roku as much or more than Roku wants to be on device. It’s what TV buyers want.

Darth

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I’M JUST AN OLD GUY THAT GETS LOST IN SOME OF THESE GREAT POSTS. WHAT IS OTT

Ask Google

OTT networks
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q…

Denny Schlesinger

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OTT = Over the top.

From wikipedia:

Over the top (OTT) is a term used to refer to content providers that distribute streaming media as a standalone product directly to viewers over the Internet, bypassing telecommunications, multichannel television, and broadcast television platforms that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.

So like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hula, Disney+…etc

Roku is a platform that allows you access to these content providers on/for your TV. It’s a crowded field for them.

Their CAP?
The going theory is that because they’ve been given a big headstart as the neutral platform that gives you, the consumer, access to every OTT content provider, they now have so many apps, or channels developed, that no new upstarts can compete. Now I know what you’re thinking, and I agree - I don’t care about all the hundred of rubbish channels that they advertise. I just want a fast clean OS that allows me to flick easily between the big channels Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Youtube, Hulu…etc

I don’t care whether I’m using appleTV, samsung, android TV or Roku. So long as it works. Maybe things have changed, but last I looked, everything really did pale compared to Roku. Simple things like the ability to search for a movie, from the home screen, and have the search look into all your channels, can be done in Roku but couldn’t in some of the others. Maybe that’s changed now as it’s such a simple feature. I know samsung had issues with their OS - slow, clunky, dated.

But look at it from the view of TV manufacturers. What smartTV OS will they want to put into their TVs to sell? The most popular OS with the highest number of developed apps/channels is a good start.

Of course, if Amazon approaches you and offers you a boatload of money to include their Fire OS, you’ll take that.

I’m writing a lot about Roku recently. In the past I’ve been completely against it because I saw it as a pure hardware play. Others, and TMF, saw differently and called it right. At the moment, you just have to go with the numbers, and ROKU is leading the charge in this field, with a 37% marketshare.

Amazon is #2 with 28%, up from 24% and 16% the previous years.

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It’s not just about the stick or the OS on a TV either.

Just downloaded the Roku app to my phone from the Apple App Store. Signed up for a Free Roku account. Am now watching the movie gravity via ad supported on the Roku channel.

No credit card, no pre existing account, I own no Roku device, Player or TV. From didn’t know the app existed to watching ad supported content in 30 seconds.

That is unique and disruptive, IMO. Try it out yourself.

Going to check out what other content there is.

Darth

Bought small ROKU positions x2

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What happened to Apple TV? We just bought a new one and love it. Are we the only people using Apple TV?

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The thing I like about AppleTV that was a game-changer for me is the search using your voice. So much more convenient than having to type something in on a TV. I work in IT but don’t have much technology so I don’t know if Roku has this.

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Thanks Denny. I thought it was Over The Top but didn’t know how it applied.
Thanks again.

Gayle

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“The thing I like about AppleTV that was a game-changer for me is the search using your voice. So much more convenient than having to type something in on a TV.”

Roku and Amazon Fire TV have this feature. I own one of each and like both of them a lot. Also available are remote apps with keyboards that are easier than using the regular remotes for in-app searches.I

I don’t own Apple products but my friends do and have ended up buying one of the other devices because they were disappointed. (Their words)

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"It’s not just about the stick or the OS on a TV either.

Just downloaded the Roku app to my phone from the Apple App Store. Signed up for a Free Roku account. Am now watching the movie gravity via ad supported on the Roku channel.

No credit card, no pre existing account, I own no Roku device, Player or TV. From didn’t know the app existed to watching ad supported content in 30 seconds.

That is unique and disruptive, IMO. Try it out yourself."

This is pretty interesting, didn’t know Roku offered anything outside of a streaming platform on TVs. Are they moving towards being a content provider and not solely a platform/software?

Someone pays $10 - $15 a month for Netflix to watch unlimited content. I’d be curious how much revenue that person watching the same number of hours of content through an ad supported service would drive. Is the ad revenue more than the $10 a month the provider could possibly get through a subscription?

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Someone pays $10 - $15 a month for Netflix to watch unlimited content. I’d be curious how much revenue that person watching the same number of hours of content through an ad supported service would drive. Is the ad revenue more than the $10 a month the provider could possibly get through a subscription? - Invain

Per Roku’s last earnings release the 2019 Annual revenue per user is $19.06, a 27% gain over 2018. Advertising is the fast growing component of revenue growth for them. That one of my favorite Roku metrics.

The thing I worry about the most is their moat.

Kindest regards,
Steve

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Anecdotal insight: We cut cable a few months ago and started searching for new avenues to get our favorite shows. My teenage son already had a Fire TV in his room and we planned to stream content on our other TVs using our PS3 and PS4 (the same way we were already watching Netflix). We’d planned to replace a fourth, old school tv with a smart tv. I signed up for free trials of YouTubeTV, Philo and Sling. What I learned was that the Fire TV could not get the YouTubeTV Channel, which had most of the content we watched regularly. Amazon won’t allow it to be downloaded on their devices. And the PlayStations had trouble with some of the other apps we wanted. Enter: Roku.

We ended up buying two Roku devices and a TCL TV embedded with Roku, just so we could download and watch the channels we wanted in those three rooms. My son still has a Fire TV, but wants to connect a Roku to it to get the content he’s missing, so he’ll likely buy a roku soon.

Roku wouldn’t have been on my radar had Amazon not blocked YouTubeTV.

I also bought some Roku stock then, ahead of the most recent earnings, and plan to hold it a while.

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What apps did not work on the PS? Just curious.