Howdy confirms Roku’s growing interest in subscription streaming
Roku has confirmed its growing interest in the paid-TV market with the launch of a low-cost subscription VOD (SVOD) service in the US called Howdy. It is designed to complement what the company termed “premium services” (ie. such as Netflix and Disney+).
Priced at $2.99, Howdy offers nearly 10,000 hours of entertainment from its inaugural partners: Lionsgate, Warner Bros Discovery and FilmRise. Their titles appear alongside select Roku originals.
Howdy is available on the Roku platform initially and will appear on other platforms soon.
This is the latest example of how Roku is expanding its own curated content offers within and beyond its connected TV operating system (OS) platform, which is hosted on smart TVs and its own streaming sticks.
Roku already offers the Roku Channel (free and ad-supported) and this summer acquired Frndly TV, a US subscription streaming service with VOD plus 50 live channels including A&E, Hallmark Channel and The History Channel.
Frndly costs $6.99 a month and includes a cloud recording feature so users can watch replays of any show or movie that aired on a live channel in the previous 72 hours.
It is already available on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Samsung and Vizio platforms and will remain on these. Frndly is now being integrated into the Roku OS user experience.
This diverse distribution provides a clue to what is likely to happen with Howdy.
Flexing its muscles
Roku is flexing its muscles as a wide-reach platform that aggregates owned and third-party streaming services. The company has a long heritage in the free-to-view market (while hosting non-owned subscription streamers) but is now looking to grow its own subscription revenue business.
As previously reported by The Media Leader, Roku sees an opportunity to compete with pay-TV and telecoms providers as a bundler that can help consumers subscribe to a collection of streaming services at favourable prices, backed by its own subscription management capability.
The subscription management is underpinned by Roku Pay, its proprietary payment platform that links to a customer payment method in the same way that PayPal does.
During Roku’s Q2 earnings call, founder and CEO Anthony Wood explained how the company has begun integrating Frndly into the Roku user interface including in search and recommendations.
Focusing on opportunities to grow viewing of Roku’s subscription content, he noted: “Content recommendations can include shows that you need a subscription for but where you are eligible for a free trial. There are lots of different locations across our UI where we can recommend content, including subscription content.”
Subscription bundles
Wood added that Roku is also focused on improving its ability to create bundles of subscription services, which could include Roku and third-party services.
Speaking at the launch of Howdy, Wood explained: “Howdy is a natural step that extends our mission to make better TV for everyone by making it affordable, accessible and built for how people watch today.”
Jim Packer, president of worldwide television distribution at Lionsgate, added: “Roku is the perfect partner to launch a more accessible complement to the higher-priced SVODs.
“This service could scale quickly and provides us with a new way to monetise our content. We are proud to be part of this new streaming experience.”