I didn't watch their content when I had a free account from T Mobile, why do they think I am going to watch now?
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Roku Acquires Rights to Quibi Content for Less Than $100 Million
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You have to ask why Quibi failed though.
Was it the content or was it:
- The timing of the launch (April 2020)? That was around the height of the 1st wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
- The name of the service? What's a Quibi?
- The business model? You pay $5 per month to watch a few short videos and you still get served ads? Yes, their business model is similar to Hulu's ad supported version of which 70 percent of their subscribers are on, but Hulu's got a lot more content (new, old, and originals) and they had 1st mover advantage. And if you took advantage of the Hulu Black Friday promos in 2018 ($$0.99/mo for 1 year), 2019 ($1.99/mo for 1 year), and 2020 ($1.99/mo for 1 year), Quibi is a poor value in comparison.
- Quibi had to acquire new subscribers from scratch and you had to watch the shorts on a small screen vs your big screen TV at home.
I don't believe the problem was the content; Quibi has several good shows.
Quibi managed to acquire "an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers."
Meanwhile, as of Q3 2020, Roku had 46 million active accounts and their Roku Channel reached 54 million U.S. households.
Roku's going to have a lot more people watching this content now. For Roku, this is an investment in their platform which, for their most recent quarter, grew revenue 78 percent year-over-year.
There’s a difference between Roku as the box that you use to get streaming services on your TV or as the software your TV used to support multiple services and Roku as a streaming service. It’s the same difference between Apple TV (as a hardware box you connect to your TV to support multiple streaming services) and Apple TV+, the actual unique streaming content. So Roku clearly has a lot of market share as a streaming box, but it probably doesn’t have the mindshare (as a streaming service) of a Netflix or Hulu or Disney+. I didn’t even know Roku had unique programming.
Also, all this hoopla over short form video is really weird, in my opinion. I prefer longer form (10-60 minutes) video on YouTube to filling up on shorter stuff, more time for depth in the quasi-documentary tech/AV/history type videos I prefer. TV and movies are longer form content than this strictly short form stuff. I don’t get why so many investors seem to think that there’s gold in them thar short form video hills, especially when YouTube and TikTok have such market dominance in short and micro form video. The only chance your seed investment in online video or social media has in paying off is for the startup you’re investing in to get bought out by Google or Facebook.
Also, all this hoopla over short form video is really weird, in my opinion. I prefer longer form (10-60 minutes) video on YouTube to filling up on shorter stuff, more time for depth in the quasi-documentary tech/AV/history type videos I prefer. TV and movies are longer form content than this strictly short form stuff. I don’t get why so many investors seem to think that there’s gold in them thar short form video hills, especially when YouTube and TikTok have such market dominance in short and micro form video. The only chance your seed investment in online video or social media has in paying off is for the startup you’re investing in to get bought out by Google or Facebook.
According to https://www.statista.com/statistics/1021332/united-states-connected-tv-devices-market-share/
Roku had 30 percent, Amazon had 12 percent, Chromecast had 9 percent.
But that (1st quarter 2019) was almost 2 years ago. I wonder what it is now.
EDIT...
Data from NPD Group that was released today says Roku now has 38 percent market share in the U.S. and 31 percent in Canada
Roku is becoming the most powerful company in streaming
A growing user base will give it even more power in content negotiations.
www.protocol.com
and they ended 2020 with 51.2 million active Roku accounts
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54 million vs Disney's 86.8 million vs Hulu's 36.6 million
The Roku Channel Growth
During the quarter, The Roku Channel reached U.S. households with an estimated 54 million people and grew streaming hours faster than any other top 10 channel on the Roku platform on a year-over-year growth basis. The Roku Channel grew more than twice as fast as the Roku platform overall, on both a streaming hours and active account reach basis. Our new live TV channel guide, which now includes over 115 channels supported this rapid growth and demonstrates our ability to roll out popular content-discovery features. As we continue to offer users more content and features in The Roku Channel, we believe our viewers will stream more content from within it and it will become an even more important source of economics to our content partners. For example, A&E recently highlighted its success reaching an extensive audience across The Roku Channel saying that Roku helped create “tremendous value for A+E’s content through their incredible ad monetization.”
Mindshare is different than market share, though. If I hear about a new hit streaming show, it’s on Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, or AppleTV+. I’ve never once heard someone talk about some new show they’re getting into where they say, “Oh, it’s on The Roku Channel”. (Actually, this is the first I’m hearing of The Roku Channel.) While there do seem to be viewers for Roku’s service, they don’t seem to have the same name recognition for original content as the major streaming services.
The reason you've never heard anyone talk about a new show on the Roku Channel and "they don’t seem to have the same name recognition for original content as the major streaming services" is because Roku never had their own original content until now.
The amount of streaming channels it supports and its cost.
You can see what Roku currently has on the Roku channel.
I use the Roku streaming box but I rarely go to the Roku channel.
Most of my viewing is Pluto TV, with the rest usually YouTube, Funimation and Crunchyroll.
The Roku channel, Pluto TV, and YouTube are free and I only pay for Funimation and Crunchyroll.
Agreed with this, we have two TCL Roku TVs and they work really well, and a Samsung Smart TV with an awful, awful interface. I would happily trade that Samsung for another Roku.
I use it every night in my bedroom to access broadcast tv channels through the Xfinity Stream app. I purchased it specifically so I don't have to pay for another cable box. And of course use streaming apps on it, Prime video, Peacock, or any other service I might be subscribed to for the moment.
I personally wouldn’t even try a Roku. What’s the point in losing the benefits of the Apple TV and having everything seamlessly link. Airplay and Homehub and huge reasons too.
I got a new Sony tv this year but I’m not going anywhere near the built in software and sharing anything with google either.
I got a new Sony tv this year but I’m not going anywhere near the built in software and sharing anything with google either.
I wish these companies would consult with me for only $1M before making these terrible purchases.
Roku makes set top boxes. Who is going to watch vertical video on a TV when they wouldn’t even watch it on a phone? They must have too much money burning a hole in their pocket and executives wanting to expand the business for the sake of expanding it who don’t know what they’re doing.
Roku makes set top boxes. Who is going to watch vertical video on a TV when they wouldn’t even watch it on a phone? They must have too much money burning a hole in their pocket and executives wanting to expand the business for the sake of expanding it who don’t know what they’re doing.
Quibis whole thing was that it could be watched horizontally or vertically giving the user a different experience either way watched. In a short package they could be enjoyed while commuting.
It’s not hard to imagine roku will only take advantage of the horizontal video. And probably combining the 5 minute videos into actual 30 minutes episodes.
I love roku and it seems to
Be the it thing many people have nowadays. It’s so easy to use.
Nobody Wanted to Pay for Quibi When It Launched — Now Its Shows Are Streaming for Free on Roku - Rollingstone
Roku apparently wants to step out their platform boundaries with something to differentiate their service by creating their own channel. Personally I see this content as low value, but if its what they want to utilize to market their set-top-boxes, well its their money to throw away.
But I think some in Roku possible miss being aligned with Netflix, and soince they are not really tethered to a larger service they are trying to compete before becoming less relevant. Look the Apple TV 4K has Apple TV +, FireTV has Amazon Prime, Chromecast has Google TV. But Roku they has nothing really competitively.
Do we think they have a chance with how the competition has evolved, good question with this $100 million of short-form content from Quibi?
