The first Roku TV model smart TVs are getting ready to roll out in the U.K. in the first step for the company’s planned European expansion.
Manufacturer Hisense will release its first Roku TV models for the U.K. market on Black Friday (November 29) at Argos. Hisense Roku TV models will be available in 43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch screen sizes, and will support 4K HDR.
Hisense Roku TVs will have access to the Roku Channel Store also include Freeview Play, which includes live TV and on demand content from BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My5.
“We are thrilled to launch Roku TV in Europe, starting with the UK. Roku TV models have been incredibly popular in the U.S. for years. Roku TV models simply offer a fantastic smart TV experience: are simple to use, packed with entertainment and deliver exceptional value,” said Bart Bomers, vice president of EMEA at Roku, in a statement.
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The official launch follows Roku announcement earlier this year at IFA in Berlin that it would be expanding its Roku OS program into Europe. The company will be facing competition from Amazon, which is planning Fire TV Edition TV sets from JVC and ok, the private label of the German retailer MediaMarktSaturn, for the U.K. market.
If the battle for the smart TV market in the U.K. plays out anything like it has in the U.S., then Roku could very well dominate. Earlier this year, Roku estimated that one of every three smart TVs sold last quarter were Roku TVs, a figure that the company said moved it past Samsung and made it the top smart TV operating system in the U.S.
Roku’s aggressive push into smart TVs and its attractive licensing terms for manufacturers will likely be big contributing factors to the company’s ongoing growth. Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen predicts Roku will have 72 million active users by 2022, up from the 30.5 million the company reported in August. Nollen said 72 million active accounts for Roku could drive the company’s platform revenue to $2.3 billion and overall revenue of $2.7 billion, nearly tripling from 2019 guidance.