Roku has decided to further expand its ad-supported free streaming channel. This decision is not of been an addition of new platform as done by Roku earlier rather it has been expansion through adding new feature of more number of live content like entertainment and sports channels to the customers.
Without having the requirement of subscription, along with the previously available offerings, now Roku has planned to add streams to entertainment segment from its partner TMZ, People Are Awesome, Pet Collective, FailArmy, AFV and more alike to its channel.
For now Roku to its channel will made availability of live events from sports channel like COMBT GO, Stadium, Adventure Sports Network, Wham Network, and EDGEsport with many more from other channels.
Newsy, Yahoo, Newsmax, ABC News, People TV, Cheddar and recently TYT Network’s The Young Turks are names which Roku has added to its Channel for live news earlier this year.
Roku’s earnings, from hardware sector, for third quarter of this year remained higher than analyst expectations but revenue generated from its platform remained lower than expected for the same period. This short fall of revenue generated from platform, causing negative effect on stock value, turn the Roku to decide for further expansions by adding this new feature with more live streams options available to existing subscriber.
Roku has been planning and striving hard to make more revenues from its advertising and Platform business rather sticking with only selling streaming players and TVs as being hardware device maker. Roku Channel, by allowing ad selling along contents and exposing platform to a more audience, is the main strategic element of Roku to achieve the goal.
Despite these plans, Roku reported for last quarter, a 6.2 billion hour of streaming by 23.8 million of its active users beating 5.8 billion hours by 23.1 million user analyst were expecting. With these reports, eemingly the plan will take time to escalate but in long run, it might be working fine for the Roku.