Roku Follows Netflix and Plans to Stop Reporting Streaming Household Numbers

"Our business has also grown and evolved, and we are now primarily focused on growing Platform revenue and profitability,” the company said in the Q3 shareholder letter.

Roku beat Wall Street expectations for its third quarter and said it will stop giving quarterly updates on the number of streaming households, and average revenue per user, starting in the first quarter of 2025.

“Since our IPO in 2017, the streaming industry has evolved meaningfully, with Americans now spending significantly more TV time streaming than watching cable. Our business has also grown and evolved, and we are now primarily focused on growing Platform revenue and profitability,” the company said in the Q3 shareholder letter.

This moves follows in the footsteps of Netflix, which set the same timeline.

For the third quarter, Roku reported total net revenue of $1.062 billion, up 16 percent year-over-year and its first time hitting $1 billion in revenue, gross profit of $480 million and a net loss of 6 cents per share.  Analysts had expected a loss of 32 cents per share and revenue of $1.02 billion.

Roku had forecast revenue of $1.01 billion, gross profit of $440 million and adjusted EBITDA of $45 million.

The number of streaming households using Roku reached 85.5 million, an increase of 2 million from the prior quarter. Streaming hours were up 20 percent year-over-year to reach 32 billion. 

The average revenue per user came in at $41.10, which is flat year-over-year. The flat ARPU numbers “reflects an increasing share of Streaming Households in international markets, where we are currently focused on scale and engagement,” the company said in its shareholder letter, with different countries in different stages of monetization. 

“While a large portion of our Streaming Household growth is in our international markets, the majority of our Platform revenue is currently generated in the U.S. Therefore, as we continue to grow internationally, Streaming Household growth is not representative of Platform revenue growth. We expect to continue to grow Streaming Households in all our locations, including the U.S. We will provide updates on our scale as we achieve certain milestones, such as 100 million Streaming Households, which we expect to reach in the next 12-18 months,” the shareholder letter reads. 

In the third quarter, platform revenue, which comes from advertising as well as streaming services distribution, grew to $908 million, up 15 percent year-over-year. Revenue from streaming services distribution, which includes subscriptions, grew faster than platform revenue overall, primarily due to price increases for subscription-based services on the platform, the company said. The overall growth in platform revenue was attributed to home screen improvements, growing advertising demand thanks to deeper third-party integrations and more Roku-billed subscriptions.

Executives added that the Roku Channel continues to be the third most popular app on the platform by reach and devices. Asked whether the company would consider distributing the Roku Channel on other devices to increase engagement, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said they have considered it, but that the Roku Channel is more beneficial on the platform.

“If you just look at the economics of that business. It’s much more economical, and much more profitable when it’s on our platform versus the third party platform,” Wood said.

As for whether the company will increase costs on original content on the Roku Channel, executives noted that the majority of content is a variable-based cost and includes revenue sharing.

“Original content isn’t a significant investment for us in terms of cost. And while we will absolutely continue to invest in this content because our streamers love it, it’s not a material portion of our overall cost structure within the Roku channel,” Roku CFO Dan Jedda said.

The company expects fourth quarter revenue of $1.140 billion, up 16 percent YoY, gross profit of $465 million and adjusted EBITDA of $30 million.