Earlier in the week, Roku revealed that they had surpassed 50 million active users. One of the biggest areas of growth has come from Roku OS-powered Smart TVs. Now, the company says that based on NPD’s Weekly Retail Tracking Service, they were the top-selling smart TV OS in both the U.S. and Canada in 2020.
Between January 5th and December 26th, 2020 – Roku TV held a 38% market share in the U.S. and 31% in Canada. Roku TV models range from 24-inch to 75-inch 4K HDR and are available from more than 15 TV OEMs in the U.S., Canada, UK, Mexico, and Brazil.
The company has seen growth from 2018 when they said “more than one in four smart TVs” and 2019 when they revealed “nearly one in three smart TVs” sold in the U.S were Roku TVs. In 2019, they reported one in four smart TVs sold in Canada were Roku TVs.
“We are proud to power the smart TVs that are most frequently purchased in the United States and Canada. Every day we work to ensure our customers have the best TV experience and that means – ease of use, choice, endless entertainment and great value,” said Mustafa Ozgen, senior vice president of Account Acquisition at Roku.
Some of the major brands that use the Roku OS include TCL, Hisense, Element, Hitachi, JVC, Magnavox, onn. (Walmart-brand), Philips, RCA and Sanyo.
Roku is expected to face more competition however, as it’s been reported that Comcast is looking to partner with Walmart to power their Smart TVs. Currently, Roku OS powers Walmart’s onn. brand.
Google has also been more aggressively pursuing deals with their Android TV – and now Google TV operating system. TCL now offers multiple models with Android TV built-in, while Sony unveiled that they will be using the new Google TV OS in their latest Bravia models.
Roku also announced the expansion of the Roku TV Ready program, which “allows consumer electronics companies to partner with Roku to help their products work seamlessly with Roku TV.” This includes a new reference design to help third-party soundbars connect to Roku TVs wirelessly. The first such soundbar will be coming from TCL later this year.
Element will also be launching a Roku TV Ready Soundbar and Subwoofer later this month – joining TCL, Hisense, Enclave, Sound United & Bose who already offer Roku TV Ready products. The company plans to expand the Roku TV Ready program internationally in 2021, with partnerships to be announced at a later date.