IP streaming service and set top provider Roku has announced it is developing a new hybrid set top to enable operators to offer linear and live streaming services, as part of the Roku Powered licensing program.
The set top will be available to Roku Powered partners later this year, which includes Sky in the UK, Germany and Italy, as well as Telstra in Australia – of which Sky UK will be the first to roll out the new hybrid box for its Now TV OTT streaming service. Roku uses ARM based chips supplied by Broadcom.
The Roku Powered Licensing program was originally rolled out in 2014 when Roku and Sky partnered for the launch of the Now TV box. The program allows partners to have more control over the home screen experience, by using the Roku platform to deliver their own streaming services as well as services such as Netflix and YouTube – including the use of the operator’s own recommendation engine of choice, while having access to Roku’s streaming players. This demonstrates that Roku is taking more care of its partners now, as operators don’t want to hand over control of their pay TV environment, but must adapt to the internet app design with search and discovery integrated into the UI.
The hybrid set top announcement from Roku came out swiftly after Sky UK announced its plans to launch a new Now TV Smartbox, developed by Roku, later this year, for its pay TV content and live FTA programming. This inclusion of FTA channels puts the new box up against the likes of other FTA services such as YouView, which can be purchased for a one-off payment cost ranging between £100 ($145) for a set top, or £700 ($1,000) exclusively on Sony Smart TVs, YouView is also available as part of a package from BT, TalkTalk, or Plusnet. It also clashes horns with Freeview Play, which is available on a range of set tops and Smart TVs.
The respective Roku boxes can be sold by partners for whatever they like and many may choose to subsidize them as Sky does, which charges just $25 for them, and we assume the new device will be subsidized in the same way, but Roku has not given it a price as yet, but it is likely to come through partners at a significant discount to the FTA device costs.
“When the new NOW TV Smart Box arrives later this year, it will be the perfect one-stop box to get a contract-free, flexible way of watching the best of pay TV and free-to-air content all in one place,” said Gidon Katz, Director of Now TV.
Over in the US, Time Warner Cable and Charter also want a slice of the internet streaming pie, TWC is now offering its TWC TV live streaming service in New York to TWC internet customers – a 20 channel internet-only version starts at $10 a month and it will offer 20 channels in total. Charter Communications is looking at offering its own internet-only service called Spectrum TV Stream, at around $13 a month. Unlike Sling TV, both services require Roku hardware, and both companies will supply these. The merger between Charter and TWC is still awaiting regulatory approval, but both operators releasing their own streaming services around the same time and both using Roku makes it look like a single management team is already making the decisions.
“With the new Roku Powered hybrid set top we are enabling operators to bridge the gap between linear broadcast and streaming TV services,” said Andrew Ferrone, VP of pay TV at Roku. “Many consumers have a hybrid viewing pattern and leverage both traditional broadcast and on demand or catch-up services.”
Roku says it streamed 5.5 billion hours of content last year, up 73% from 2014, and ended the year with 9 million monthly active accounts. It also recently added over 25 new streaming channels to its Roku Search features, including, Acorn TV, Amazon Video, CBS All Access, CinemaNow, Crackle, Encore Play, Fox Now, Freeform (formerly Watch ABC Family), FX Now, Google Play, HBO Go, Hulu, Met Opera on Demand, M-Go, Nat Geo TV, Netflix, Popcornflix, Snagfilms, Starz Play, Time Warner Cable, Tubi TV, Vudu, Watch ABC, Watch Disney Channel, Watch Disney Jr. and Watch Disney XD.
Last quarter was the fifth quarter in a row that Google’s Chromecast streaming dongle won the dongle market title, taking a dominant 35% share in Q3, according to UK researcher Strategy Analytics last quarter. Of a total of 9.2 million units shipped globally in the last quarter, Apple TV was the closest rival with a market share of just 20% at 1.84 million units, and Amazon Fire TV and Roku are both trailing with 16% each. The remaining 13% is made up by other smaller players such as the Nvidia Shield and Nexus Player.