Roku CEO Sees Most US TV Homes as Streamers-Only in 2024; Stock Down After Q4

confluence of consumers, “the biggest names in media,” leading advertisers and global TV brands embracing over-the-top video. By 2024, half of U.S. households will have cut the cord “or never had traditional pay TV,” he said. Roku added 9.8 million incremental active accounts last year, reaching 36.9 million, and streaming hours there swelled by 16.3 billion to a record 40.3 billion, it reported. In 2019, just under one in three smart TVs sold in the U.S. was a Roku TV, placing it as the No. 1 streaming TV brand, said Wood, up from one in four the prior year. Scott Rosenberg, general manager-platform business, said half of Roku users don't have a pay-TV package so are “not reachable through linear television,” and the other half are “very light linear TV viewers.” The company has been able to show advertisers the “vast majority” of Roku viewers aren't reached by linear TV, he said. Pivotal Research recommends investors sell the stock, it wrote them Friday. “All areas of the ecosystem [are] beginning to squeeze Roku.” Analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak noted traditional distributors are attacking the direct-to-consumer aggregation opportunity with free equipment and programming, citing Comcast’s $5 monthly discount on NBC’s Peacock service. Wlodarczak expects all non-virtual MVPD DTC players to follow Netflix’ lead and sign distribution deals with traditional distributors to be bundled into pay-TV offerings, eliminating the need for Roku. Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter sees “tremendous opportunities for revenue growth” at Roku, driven by licensing partnerships, and advertising growth from The Roku Channel and ad VOD partners. Pachter was less sanguine about the company’s road to profitability and said 2020 guidance implies “minimal growth in Player sales in 2020 and at zero margin.” Friday, the stock closed down 6.3 percent at $130.25.