Is Roku the Rodney Dangerfield of the Screen Wars?

Nine big questions re: Roku:
1) Does Walmart buying Vizio help or hurt Roku?
2) What share of the smart TV operating system (TVOS) does Roku account for?
3) What share of Roku accounts have a Roku smart TV?
4) How does Roku make money?
5) How much advertising revenue is Roku generating?
6) How many accounts does Roku have?
7) How much money does Roku make from each subscriber? 
8) How much time do Roku accounts spend streaming?
9) What share of streaming viewership does the Roku Channel account for?

Big question #1: Does Walmart buying Vizio help or hurt Roku?

Mr. Screens’ Crystal Ball: Despite Walmart’s distribution and financial resources, I still believe Roku is underrated. Although Vizio has brought amazing innovations to our industry, Roku leads in many key metrics (household penetration, share of ads, etc.).

Key metrics for Roku vs. Vizio (U.S. only):
1) Device install base – Roku +305%
2) FAST monthly viewers – Roku +485%
3) Share of ads – Roku +780%

Big question #2: What share of the smart TV operating system (TVOS) does Roku account for?

Quick answer: 26% (84M) of all U.S. smart TV devices (325M) use Roku’s operating system.  

Share of U.S. smart TV operating systems according to Kagan:
1) Roku OS (Roku) – 26%
2) Fire TV (Amazon) – 17%
3) Tizen Smart Hub (Samsung) – 14%
4) Android TV (Alphabet) – 12%
5) WebOS (LG) – 8%
6) SmartCast (Vizio) – 7%
7) Apple tvOS (Apple) – 4%
8) Pre-Tizen Smart Hub (Samsung) – 2%
9) Chromecast (Alphabet) – 1%
10) Others – 9%

Roku’s share of U.S. smart TV operating systems:
1) 2019-Q3 – 23%
2) 2020-Q3 – 25%
3) 2021-Q3 – 26%
4) 2022-Q3 – 26%
5) 2023-Q3 – 26%

Bottom line: Roku punches above its weight when accounting for the share of CTV ad dollars that run on their devices.

Tales from the Screens family: Mrs. Screens loves big TVs, so our upgrade cycle is shorter than the average family (≈ 7 years).  We have 8 TVs in our household (6 Samsung + 2 Vizio), and all but one have a Roku that we use to access linear/streaming content.

Why this matters: Our household would show Roku as 47% (7/15) of the installed devices but 100% of the ad impressions since it is how we watch TV.

Big question #3: What share of Roku accounts have a Roku smart TV?

Roku share of devices by type:
1) Streaming media device – 53%
2) Smart TV – 47%

Interesting: In the U.S., this has flipped, with smart TVs accounting for the largest share at 51%.

Big question #4: How does Roku make money?

Quick answer: Last year, Roku generated 86% of its revenue from the platform business (ads, subscriptions, etc.).

Big question #5: How much advertising revenue is Roku generating?

Roku advertising revenue (YoY growth):
1) 2018 – $389M (↑ 78%)
2) 2019 – $721M (↑ 88%)
3) 2020 – $1.3B (↑ 73%)
4) 2021 – $2.3B (↑ 82%)
5) 2022 – $2.7B (↑ 20%)
6) 2023 – $3.0B (↑ 10%)

Roku profit (YoY growth):
1) 2018 – -$13M (↑ 32%)
2) 2019 – -$65M (↓ 389%)
3) 2020 – -$20M (↑ 69%)
4) 2021 – $235M (↑ 1,261%)
5) 2022 – -$531M (↓ 326%)
6) 2023 – -$792M (↓ 49%)

Big question #6: How many accounts does Roku have?

Roku active accounts (YoY growth):
1) 2016 – 13.4M
2) 2017 – 19.3M (↑ 44%)
3) 2018 – 27.1M (↑ 40%)
4) 2019 – 36.9M (↑ 36%)
5) 2020 – 51.2M (↑ 39%)
6) 2021 – 60.1M (↑ 17%)
7) 2022 – 70.0M (↑ 16%)
8) 2023 – 80.0M (↑ 14%)

Big question #7: How much money does Roku make from each subscriber?

Roku advertising revenue (annual) per account (YoY growth):
1) 2018 – $16.76 (↑ 22%)
2) 2019 – $22.51 (↑ 34%)
3) 2020 – $28.30 (↑ 26%)
4) 2021 – $40.67 (↑ 44%)
5) 2022 – $41.68 (↑ 2%)
6) 2023 – $39.92 (↓ 4%)

Big question #8: How much time do Roku accounts spend streaming?

Roku streaming hours (annual) per account (YoY growth):
1) 2016 – 388
2) 2017 – 767 (↑ 98%)
3) 2018 – 875 (↑ 14%)
4) 2019 – 1,022 (↑ 17%)
5) 2020 – 1,147 (↑ 12%)
6) 2021 – 1,218 (↑ 6%)
7) 2022 – 1,249 (↑ 3%)
8) 2023 – 1,325 (↑ 6%)

FYI: Last year, the average Roku household streamed 3.6 hours of content every day.

Roku advertising revenue per streaming hour (YoY growth):
1) 2018 – $0.016
2) 2019 – $0.019 (↑ 17%)
3) 2020 – $0.021 (↑ 11%)
4) 2021 – $0.031 (↑ 46%)
5) 2022 – $0.031 (↑ 0%)
6) 2023 – $0.028 (↓ 9%)

Big question #9: What share of streaming viewership does the Roku Channel account for?Quick answer: The Roku Channel accounts for 1% of total TV time and 3% of streaming TV time.

Monthly U.S. viewing households for the Roku Channel (YoY growth):
1) 2020 – 12.8M
2) 2021 – 16.5M (↑ 29%)
3) 2022 – 19.1M (↑ 16%)
4) 2023 – 19.9M (↑ 4%)

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