Roku boasts that it has the “no. 1 TV streaming platform” in the US with 15 million monthly active users that collectively streamed nearly 7 billion hours of video in the first half of 2017.

Roku stays in the lead
There is RokuOS, Apple’s tvOS, Google’s Android TV, Amazon’s FireTV, Samsung’s Tizen, LG’s webOS, and other TV platforms out there. Unlike the smartphone market, the market for TV platforms has not (yet?) turned into a duopoly.

The Roku platform now has 15 million MAUs (monthly active users), which is up by 43% over the same period last year, and 2 million more than the 13 million users announced in January 2017. Measured by total hours streamed on each platform, Roku is number one in the US, the company claims. Users of the platform have streamed nearly 7 billion hours of video in the first half of 2017. That is a 61% increase over 2016, according to the company.

- “Roku is the No. 1 TV streaming platform in the United States as measured by total hours streamed,” said Roku Founder and CEO Anthony Wood. “We are growing our active accounts by distributing our proprietary TV OS across a broad range of streaming devices with multiple price points and many new and highly rated Roku TV models from our TV brand partners.”

Roku’s TV platform offers around 5000 apps ranging from major players such as Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and HBO to smaller niche services.



How the numbers compare
How these numbers compare to competitors is hard to evaluate as Apple, Samsung, LG, and others do no share usage numbers. What is clear is that both Amazon FireTV (7000 apps) and Apple tvOS (8000 apps) have raced past Roku in terms of apps available but that is of course a poor indicator of usage.

At I/O in May 2017, Google said that it is activating “over 1 million” Android TVs every two months with more than 100 partners on board worldwide.

 Also read: Roku TVs will track what you watch to serve recommendations, target ads

Besides selling Roku-branded streaming boxes, the company has licensed RokuOS – its TV operating system – to manufacturers of TVs such as TCL, Hisense, Sharp, RCA, and Hitachi. Amazon is following Roku’s playbook with partners having recently launched the first ‘Fire TV Edition’ sets. Google’s Android TV platform has also been integrated in both media boxes and TVs. tvOS is exclusively available in Apple TV, whereas webOS and Tizen are pushed primarily in Smart TVs.

As more viewers are abandoning traditional TV and switching to streaming services that are increasingly targeting a global audience, competition in TV platforms will heat up. Despite Roku reaching a milestone with 15 million monthly active users, it pales in comparison to the number of global TV viewers. Roku has yet to expand beyond the US, the UK, Canada, France, and Mexico.