Shining a bit of financial light on a company that has slowly emerged as the privately funded leader in the U.S. OTT market, Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood revealed that his company took in only $190 million in revenue for 2013.
Speaking with The Information, Wood said the company is trying to shift its focus away from hardware sales, which he says have a "sub 20 percent gross margin," and toward content deals, which can generate margins as high as 95 percent. Wood told the outlet that he expects revenue from content services to surpass that derived from devices within 12-18 months. He added that Roku is "getting closer every year profitability."
Still, to put that $190 million figure in perspective, compare it to the giants Roku is successfully competing with in the OTT arena--namely, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). The No. 2 company in the over-the-top device market, according to various research reports, took in $37.5 billion in Q4 2013 revenue alone.
On Thursday, Roku received more funding from a primary backer, BSkyB, which added $700,000 to the $12.2 million investment it made in Roku in 2012.
For more:
- read this report in The Information (sub. req.)
- read this Multichannel News story
- read this BSkyB filing
Related links:
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