SAN JOSE, Calif. and TORONTO — Roku Inc. made several announcements last week, saying its global active accounts now exceed 50 million subscribers and it has acquired the exclusive global distribution rights to recently shuttered streamer Quibi’s content library.
In reporting its preliminary estimated data for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020, Roku says it now has 51.2 million active users globally, which represents an increase of 14 million accounts in 2020. In addition, viewers streamed an estimated 17 billion hours of content in the fourth quarter, for a total of 58.7 billion hours in 2020, which is an increase of 55% year-over-year for the quarter and the full year. Roku is expected to report its final financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2020 in February.
On Friday, Roku also announced it has acquired Quibi’s global content distribution rights and will make the Quibi content available for free on an ad-supported basis in 2021 to all Roku users. In addition to the full range of titles which had previously premiered on Quibi before the mobile-focused service was cancelled, more than a dozen new programs will make their exclusive debut on the Roku Channel, according to the company’s press release.
“The most creative and imaginative minds in Hollywood created ground-breaking content for Quibi that exceeded our expectations,” said Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, in Roku’s press release. “We are thrilled that these stories, from the surreal to the sublime, have found a new home on The Roku Channel.”
Following an internal restructuring by Quibi, Roku acquired Quibi Holdings LLC, the company that holds all of Quibi’s content distribution rights. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Finally, also on Friday, Roku announced Roku TV is the number-one-selling smart TV operating system in the U.S. and Canada, according to data from the NPD Group’s Weekly Retail Tracking Service. Based on data from January 5 through December 26, 2020, the Roku TV OS held 38% of market share in the U.S. and 31% in Canada in 2020.
As part of that announcement, Roku also unveiled a new wireless soundbar reference design to enable consumer electronics companies to build and sell audio devices for Roku TV. TCL is the first consumer electronics brand expected to launch a wireless soundbar and will announce device specifics at their CES 2021 event on January 12, says Roku.
