Disney, Apple Services Will Boost ‘Transition’ to All-Streamed TV, Says Roku CEO

Roku shares plummeted 16 percent to close at $118.46 Thursday after the company reported its Q3 net loss widened 164 percent to $25.2 million. Roku finished the quarter with 32.3 million active accounts, a net addition of 1.7 million from Q2, when analysts had predicted 2.1 million net adds. Senior management nevertheless said Roku was well-positioned for the Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus streaming-service launches. The new services “are good for Roku in a bunch of ways,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood on a call Wednesday with analysts. Besides driving “engagement” on the Roku platform, they’ll “increase the interest in viewership moving from traditional TV to streaming,” he said. “We think that, eventually, all TV is going to be streamed.” The rise of “all these new services will help encourage that transition,” he said. There's "lots of room to grow engagement" on the Roku platform, said Wood. "Our primary competitor is not other services," it's "linear TV," he said. "Most TV in the country is still regular linear TV and people are moving to streaming and cutting the cord and this will help drive that."