Roku Wants To Start Streaming To Third-Party Devices (variety.com)

According to Variety, Roku is looking to start streaming videos on devices made or controlled by competitors like Apple and Google. The company's first foray into streaming on third-party hardware will likely involve mobile devices. From the report: The move could further accelerate Roku's efforts to transition from a hardware-revenue-based to a services-based business model -- a transition that has been in progress for years. Now, it plans to also stream some content on devices that don't run its operating system, with mobile being a likely first step. Key to Roku's expansion into mobile video is going to be the company's existing mobile app, which has already been downloaded tens of millions of times on iOS and Android. The app's current primary function is remote control, as it allows owners of Roku streaming devices and Roku-powered TVs to control these devices directly from their phones. In fact, the app can't currently be operated if there is not a Roku device available on the same Wifi network. This could change soon, as Roku is looking to integrate video playback directly into its mobile app. A first step is likely going to be the integration of the Roku Channel, an ad-supported channel that the company launched last month. The Roku Channel currently offers free, ad-supported access to several hundred movies from major studios like Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. as well as smaller publishers like American Classics, Fandor, FilmRise, Nosey, OVGuide, Popcornflix, Vidmark, and YuYu. However, Roku has been asking publishers to also grant the company the rights to stream their titles on mobile devices, according to a source familiar with these stipulations.

Comments

Ruku streams?

[Rockoon]

Since when does Roku stream? Roku provides a client device that streams from services other than Roku.

The be part of someone elses device, Roku has to add some value or it will ultimately fail.

Re:Ruku streams?

[squiggleslash]

Roku has its own Roku channel which shows movies and TV shows, and has done so now for at least a few months. They've been advertising it heavily on their screensaver. Which, come to think of it, feels like a really odd sentence to write.

No One Wants a Roku Account

[Kunedog]

IMO Roku makes the best hardware box specifically because they have no significant streaming service, so it's in their best interest to ensure it works well (or at least acceptably) with all the streaming services that matter.

I can see why Roku themselves might want to ruin it all (for their customers) by becoming a big streaming player, which they could leverage to get onto other platforms and stop doing all that hard work of making their own good hardware (Hell, maybe even sabotage Rokus for competing services or stop supporting them). But in the long run wouldn't that inevitably devalue their most valuable business segment (hardware), and probably leave them in a much worse position as "just another streaming service" on platforms owned by someone else (Google/Apple/etc.)?

P.S. When I set up my Roku 3, it demanded I give it a pointless Roku user/pass and credit card number. There's an alternate activation URL that bypasses the CC# requirement, but you'd only learn it if you were pissed off enough to call Roku tech support (or simply google for it, as I did). So at the moment Roku's ambitions are merely a temporary annoyance, but that sounds likely to change for the worse.

Re:No One Wants a Roku Account

[Anonymous Coward]

"The move could further accelerate Roku's efforts to transition from a hardware-revenue-based to a services-based business model -- a transition that has been in progress for years."
The Razor Blade/Heroin Model. (Note that both were invented at about the same time.)

I don't lease, I don't stream, I don't subscribe, except for the most basic of Basic Internet. I buy something, it's mine. But that's just me. I no longer have a damn Credit Card.
"The Roku Channel currently offers free, ad-supported access to..."
These Bozos have it all wrong. You don't monetize the Content with Advertising, you monetize the Pause Button. Start up, a short Ad plays that can't be stopped, and On With the Show. If your bladder can handle a full 293 minutes of "Das Boot" uninterrupted, more power to you. (In fact, this could make for an interesting Drinking Game...)
Hit the Pause Button for any reason, and the Ads start, and they can't be stopped, they can't be fast-forwarded, until the Pause Button is hit again. They can't even be muted. Free the Bladder! This of course may be considered a breech of the Sacred Trust between Advertisers and Consumers. We were supposed to watch Advertising, on their Schedule, remember? Here is how that works:
If two or more people are watching the same content, it is rare for their Bladders to truly Synchronize. In fact, this event is something of a National Occasion- Half Time during the Super Bowl. Water and Sewage Systems are designed with this in mind. Even then, it is rare to share a Urinal; most activity there is sequential.
Whoever is not Pissing themselves away have pretty much nothing else to do but watch the Commercials, or maybe whip up a pitcher of Margaritas. Which leads of course to more future P...ausing.

What the hell, Cryptocurrency can be mined during these times as well. Pisscoin.

Captcha: enticed