By Michaela Gordoni
The streaming market is only becoming more crowded, and time will tell whether a streamer like Roku — which doesn’t offer any original content — will sink or swim.
Currently, Roku stock is up 28% year-to-date, which outperforms the broader market’s 9.9% gain, Yahoo! Finance reported Aug. 26.
Roku provides smart TV operating systems, a successful advertising platform and streaming devices. This sets it apart from Netflix, Disney and other streamers, which spend billions on providing fresh content.
It gets its revenue through device sales and platform revenue from ads, subscription billing, and content distribution, plus services like Roku ads manager.
Roku reached over 90 million streaming households in the first week of 2025, CBR reported at the time.
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Roku CEO and founder Anthony Wood said in a statement, “Roku’s extensive scale sets us apart in the streaming industry, with more engagement than any other TV OS platform in the U.S. Thanks to our laser focus on simplifying and enhancing the streamer’s journey, Roku is the preferred choice for millions of viewers.”
In this year’s second quarter, Roku’s platform revenue increased 18% year over year at $975 million. This is thanks to video advertising, more Roku-billed subscriptions and its new acquisition, Frndly TV. Total revenue jumped 15% year-over-year to $1.1 billion.
However, investors are concerned about Roku’s ability to weigh profitability and growth.
Roku relies heavily on ads for its growth, and competitors such as Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ have recently introduced more ad-supported tiers, which means more competition for Roku.
Right now, Roku is only in the U.S., Canada, a few European countries and some Latin American countries. Yahoo! Finance asserts that Roku can increase long-term growth if it expands more globally.
Roku anticipates a 13.3% increase in net revenue to $4.6 billion for the full year and management said it expects a net income of $20 million.
“We’ve been really clear from the beginning of our originals journey that we’re not participating in shock and awe spending wars with the SVODs. That’s not a winning strategy for us,” said David Eilenberg, head of content for Roku.
“I think because of the magnitude of our platform, the addressable audience is really, really, really large,” he said. “So we have to take a diversified approach to the portfolio that we put inside Roku channel. So what you see is everything from network sitcoms to news feeds from major news bureaus to the Mr. Beast FAST channel.”
Right now, Roku seems to be on the up, but it’s uncertain if it will maintain its momentum.
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