Roku launches 10 new channels
DIGITAL: Blip.tv, Flckr and Pandora supply new content for set-top box
By Greg Tarr of TWICE -- Video Business, 11/23/2009
NOV. 23 | DIGITAL: Roku's set-top boxes, which already allow Amazon Video On Demand and Netflix customers to play digitally delivered movie and TV titles on their TV sets, will distribute content from 10 new providers, including Web-TV site Blip.tv, photo-sharing sites such as Flckr and Internet-audio service Pandora.
The so-called Roku Channel Store also will include Facebook Photos, Mediafly and Revision3, closely held Roku said in a statement today. Roku customers will receive an upgrade for the new channels over the next two weeks.
"Because we have created an open platform for development, customers can expect even more new content channels in the near future, making the Roku player an even more valuable component of a customers’ home entertainment system," Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said in the statement.
Roku, whose users have access to about 60,000 titles because of the agreements with Netflix and Amazon, last month started selling two new types of set-top boxes, including one that's $20 cheaper than the unit it launched in May 2008. Roku, which was spun off from Netflix, now sells a standard-definition component for $79.99 and a $129.99 high-definition box with an 802.11n connectivity protocol that's considered better for video-streaming HD content than the $99.99 box introduced last year.
Roku is looking to boost sales with a wider range of both hardware products and content that can be played on them. Roku’s set-top boxes last year were the first components Netflix used to make its video-streaming titles playable directly on TVs. Amazon began streaming its digital movie and TV titles through Roku set-top boxes in March.
Roku doesn't disclose sales, only saying that its unit sales are in the hundreds of thousands. HackingNetflix.com estimates Roku's user base at between 300,000 and 400,000 households.
Roku VP of marketing Chuck Seiber said at the NewTeeVee Conference in San Francisco earlier this month that the company was preparing to launch a channel store with content providers such as Revision3 and Blip.tv.
FrameChannel, MobileTribe, Motionbox and TWiT round out the new Roku channels.
