Roku’s platform business – which includes ad sales and streaming content distribution – is down this quarter. The company is widening its programmatic net to snag more ad dollars.
Considering Roku decided to start manufacturing smart TVs in the middle of a looming recession, its Q4 results probably could have been worse.
Roku’s total Q2 revenue was $764 million, up 18% year-over-year, but was relatively flat compared with last quarter, when revenue clocked in at $734 million. CFO Steve Louden was probably referring to that plateau when he warned of a TV ad spend hiatus. US advertisers are pulling back in reaction to inflation and supply chain shortages.
Roku’s overall Q1 revenue for 2022 is up 28% year-over-year to $734 million – and more and more of the company’s growth is thanks to streaming. 88% of Roku’s Q1 revenue came from ad sales and content distribution, compared with 80% last quarter. But as streaming grows, so does the cost of original content production and hardware manufacturing.
Roku’s revenue for the fourth quarter was up 33% YOY, thanks to streaming and ad sales – but it’s losing money on its signature player devices. It’s also losing money licensing its operating system to manufacturers using it to create Roku TV models. Roku was the top streaming platform across the US, Canada and Mexico in terms of hours streamed – but investors still aren’t impressed.
Roku did way better than the TV ad market at large in Q2, despite a major pullback in ad spend from brands across the board. Platform revenues, which include advertising, grew 46% YoY to $244.8 million, Roku said Wednesday during its Q2 earnings call. Overall, revenues increased 42% YoY to $356 million in the quarter. […]
