#Roku streaming media player for sale license

In 2010 they began offering models with various capabilities, which eventually became their standard business model. Netflix decided instead to spin off the company, and Roku released their first set-top box in 2008. Fast Company magazine cited the decision to kill the project as 'one of Netflix's riskiest moves'.

#Roku streaming media player for sale license

Only a few weeks before the project's launch, Netflix's founder Reed Hastings decided it would hamper license arrangements with third parties, potentially keeping Netflix off other similar platforms, and killed the project. In 2007, Wood's company began working with Netflix on Project:Griffin, a set-top box to allow Netflix users to stream Netflix content to their TVs. After ReplayTV's failure, Wood worked for a while at Netflix. Roku was founded by Anthony Wood in 2002, who had previously founded ReplayTV, a DVR company that competed with TiVo. Roku has also licensed its platform as middleware for smart TVs and as of 2023, also manufactures its own branded home theater components and smart TVs, with Wyze Labs producing Roku smart home devices.Īs of September 2022, Roku has 65.4 million active accounts. Roku devices are considered to have popularized the concept of low-cost, small-form-factor set-top boxes for over-the-top media consumption. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduced in May 2008.

They offer access to streaming media content from online services. Roku ( / ˈ r oʊ k uː/ ROH-koo) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. For other uses, see Roku (disambiguation). For the company which makes the devices, see Roku, Inc.