5 ms·

Actually Roku started as a "Netflix Box" meant to stream Netflix content, and funded by Netflix.

mwexler 5y ago
That was year one-ish. Within a very short period, Roku expanded well beyond that, as it was the only small box and soon stick with an OS, vs. Chromecast, Intel WiDi/Miracast, and other tech that tried to become a remote display, and the myriad of tv boxes that faded out or got commoditized (a zillion tv boxes running android). Replay, TiVo, WebTV, most of the standalone boxes had faded by that point, and Roku, from the bones of Replay, quickly became the place to have "channels" separate from a cable or YouTube/Metacafe/Dailymotion/Vimeo controlling platform etc. So, yeah, early early days were Netflix bound, but with 1200 channels in 2013 and over 3000 by 2015, Roku was clearly showing more than just Netflix. At that time, sounded like Roku was the open door to distributing content to a group of hungry viewers... And today? Still tons of "channels"... but instead of the garden of a million flowers, we instead have the top line players offering the most requested media, and so 3000 or 30000 makes little difference. In addition, a quick perusal of https://channelstore.roku.com/ https://channelstore.roku.com/ reveals that past the first few "most popular" options, it's a desert out there. Lots of screen savers and public domain streamers, and little else. So, what are Roku's options? It can promise that all can play with carriage fees reflecting consumption. It can offer it's own content (The Roku Channel) to compete. It can offer an advertising service to allow monetization of channel/media creators. And/Or, it can decide that it owns it's viewers, and instead of being an open gateway, it's a closed wall. And that's where we are: It's not easy to be a slightly-smart pipe, so Roku punted. Open no more. I'll never get rid of all the Rokus, for hope that they'll come back around. But thinking back, the power of those early days in 2012-2015 when you got a Roku because you wanted to see almost everything without having to get a sketchy box from who knows where and have it pull torrents in the background... well, those were the days, indeed.
mechanicalpulse 5y ago
Did it? The earliest recollection I have of Roku is of the SoundBridge, a music player released before Netflix streaming was even a thing. It seems the company was reincorporated after they hooked up with Netflix.

That was year one-ish. Within a very short period, Roku expanded well beyond that, as it was the only small box and soon stick with an OS, vs. Chromecast, Intel WiDi/Miracast, and other tech that tried to become a remote display, and the myriad of tv boxes that faded out or got commoditized (a zillion tv boxes running android). Replay, TiVo, WebTV, most of the standalone boxes had faded by that point, and Roku, from the bones of Replay, quickly became the place to have "channels" separate from a cable or YouTube/Metacafe/Dailymotion/Vimeo controlling platform etc. So, yeah, early early days were Netflix bound, but with 1200 channels in 2013 and over 3000 by 2015, Roku was clearly showing more than just Netflix. At that time, sounded like Roku was the open door to distributing content to a group of hungry viewers... And today? Still tons of "channels"... but instead of the garden of a million flowers, we instead have the top line players offering the most requested media, and so 3000 or 30000 makes little difference. In addition, a quick perusal of https://channelstore.roku.com/ https://channelstore.roku.com/ reveals that past the first few "most popular" options, it's a desert out there. Lots of screen savers and public domain streamers, and little else. So, what are Roku's options? It can promise that all can play with carriage fees reflecting consumption. It can offer it's own content (The Roku Channel) to compete. It can offer an advertising service to allow monetization of channel/media creators. And/Or, it can decide that it owns it's viewers, and instead of being an open gateway, it's a closed wall. And that's where we are: It's not easy to be a slightly-smart pipe, so Roku punted. Open no more. I'll never get rid of all the Rokus, for hope that they'll come back around. But thinking back, the power of those early days in 2012-2015 when you got a Roku because you wanted to see almost everything without having to get a sketchy box from who knows where and have it pull torrents in the background... well, those were the days, indeed.

mechanicalpulse 5y ago

Did it? The earliest recollection I have of Roku is of the SoundBridge, a music player released before Netflix streaming was even a thing. It seems the company was reincorporated after they hooked up with Netflix.