Roku Ships 5 Millionth Device

10 Apr, 2013 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Media player manufacturer helped launch SVOD market with Netflix

Roku April 10 said it shipped its 5 millionth media player since launching the streaming video market in 2008 with a Netflix-branded player.

Saratoga, Calif.-based Roku said its players have delivered more than 8 billion streams of video and music content via about 750 channels since 2008.

In a blog post, founder Anthony Wood said Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, HBO Go and Vudu are favorites among users streaming mostly TV shows and movies.

“Music is extremely popular, and consumers enjoy Pandora, Vevo and Spotify among other choices,” Wood said. “News, sports, science and foreign languages from around the world are also big hits.”

Roku added social gaming in 2011 with the inclusion of Angry Birds, which, according to Wood, has resulted in more than 3 billion bad piggies being eliminated.

Currently, 25% of Roku players stream more than 35 hours per week to a TV. With the average American spending 34 hours a week watching live TV, according to Nielsen, that means one in four Roku customers is enjoying the vast majority of their TV time through a Roku device, according to Wood.

“With the introduction of that first [Netflix] streaming player, we pioneered the streaming era of television,” he said.

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