Anthony Wood: Last News

Roku says it has passed 70 million active accounts worldwide, up from 60.1 million at the end of 2021.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Roku reached more than 90 million streaming households in the first week of the new year. For the third quarter, streaming tech giant Roku reported streaming households of 85.5 million.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku‘s numbers for the second quarter of 2024 topped Wall Street expectations, helped by a 2% drop in operating expenses and a 39% increase in devices revenue. The streaming platform company reported revenue $968.2 million, up 14%. Net loss was $33.95 million, or 24 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $107.6 million in the year-earlier period.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Louise Pentland, a technology industry veteran who most recently worked at Disney, will join streaming platform company Roku as senior VP and general counsel. Pentland will start at Roku on July 23 and report to founder and CEO Anthony Wood.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, had a pay package worth just over $20.2 million in 2023, while Roku’s media boss, Charlie Collier, received $6.8 million in salary. Wood’s compensation last year included salary of $1.2 million, stock awards worth $7.57 million and stock option awards ​valued at $11.43 million.

Jeff Blackburn, who spearheaded Amazon’s push into video, has joined Roku’s board of directors.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku expanded its board with the election of Jeff Blackburn, formerly Amazon’s top digital media and entertainment executive, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday. Blackburn served as Amazon’s senior VP of global media and entertainment from May 2021 to February 2023, where he oversaw content businesses including Prime Video, Amazon Studios, MGM, Music, Audible, Games and Twitch. Before that, he was the ecommerce company’s SVP of worldwide business development, advertising and entertainment from 2012-20. He had first joined Amazon in 1998 after advising the company on its IPO. “Jeff’s extensive experience in digital media and technologies makes him a great addition to our board of directors,” Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said in a statement. “I look forward to his contributions to Roku as we grow our leadership as the TV streaming platform of choice for more than 70 million households.”

Charlie Collier, who segued last fall from lengthy exec stints at Fox Corp. and AMC Networks to a top post at Roku, took the stage at his first NewFronts pitch Tuesday to invite advertisers to bring their messages to the stream.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Charlie Collier, who joined Roku last fall as president of its newly created media division, had a compensation package worth $53.3 million last year — more than twice as much as his boss, CEO Anthony Wood, took home. Collier left his post as CEO of Fox Entertainment to head up Roku Media, where he now oversees content and ad sales for the Roku Channel. Roku’s recruitment of the high-profile TV exec — who brought such hits as “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” to AMC — signaled that the company plans to spend more on original content. That said, Roku has been taking steps to cut costs, including laying off about 400 employees, after its revenue growth slowed dramatically in the last two quarters.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku announced that Dan Jedda, a 15-year veteran of Amazon and former CFO of Stitch Fix, will join the streaming platform company as chief financial officer effective May 1. He will report to Roku founder/CEO Anthony Wood. Jedda will succeed current CFO Steve Louden, who announced last year he would leave Roku. According to the company, Louden will work closely with Jedda during transition period before Loudon exits the company in August 2023. Louden had previously planned to step down as CFO in late 2019 but later decided to remain at Roku. Jedda joins the company as Roku’s revenue growth slowed dramatically at the tail end of last year — and the company expects overall revenue to decline about 5% in the first quarter of 2023. Amid macroeconomic headwinds, Roku’s operating expenses have soared, and the streaming platform company has made layoffs and taken other cost-cutting steps.

Roku’s splashy hire of Charlie Collier, former CEO of Fox Entertainment and president of AMC, has sent a clear signal about the company’s ambition to make more noise with original programming.

As in so many cities, Manchester’s office market has had to handle the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic and big shifts in the ways corporate occupiers work.

Major streaming provider Roku has announced that one of its top execs, platform chief Scott Rosenberg, plans to depart the company in the spring after a nearly 10-year run.

Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said the boom in streaming, even though it has prompted waves of consolidation, has been “awesome for Roku and for consumers.”