Speaker 1: Roku has some new players, plus new wireless speakers that
Speaker 1: connect to their TV.
Speaker 2: What's going on, I'm rich tomorrow.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech with me as Lloyd Clark,
Speaker 1: director of product management here at Roku.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about streaming in general. I feel like
Speaker 1: every single day I hear the term streaming or cord cutting.
Speaker 1: And you guys were doing this a long time ago.
Speaker 3: By the way, we have been doing this for a
Speaker 3: few years. We were one of the pioneers, and we
Speaker 3: make it easy to stream to your television and if
Speaker 3: you haven't streamed yet, you will.
Speaker 1: And so streaming has obviously gotten a lot easier because
Speaker 1: people are aware of it. Internet has gotten faster, a
Speaker 1: lot of companies have come on board with their apps.
Speaker 2: So do you find that people are still learning about this?
Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely, there's people who have not yet streamed of
Speaker 3: their television, which is why we offer a selection of products.
Speaker 3: We have a product that is available that has a
Speaker 3: full Roku operating system on it, but sales for only
Speaker 3: twenty nine to ninety nine and it's a great way
Speaker 3: to get started into streaming.
Speaker 1: And what makes Roku different in your mind versus these
Speaker 1: other fireTV, Apple TV Chrome casts out there.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's a number of things, which first and foremost,
Speaker 3: it's an entire company that wakes up every morning thinking
Speaker 3: about streaming. We built a lot of our products on
Speaker 3: three core ideas. One is, let's get a bunch of
Speaker 3: content and a lot of good content available. Let's make
Speaker 3: it affordable for everyone, so which is why we have
Speaker 3: prices as low as twenty nine dollars. And let's make
Speaker 3: it easy to get to the show that you want
Speaker 3: to get to.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, one of the things I've
Speaker 1: always thought of when it comes to Roku's a you're
Speaker 1: kind of like Switzerland. You pretty much have like every
Speaker 1: streaming app represented for the most part. And for the
Speaker 1: second thing is I always think of the universal search
Speaker 1: that you guys were doing long before a lot of
Speaker 1: other folks. So tell me about that universal search and
Speaker 1: what's kind of new with that with.
Speaker 3: The free absolutely search was additor a platform a number
Speaker 3: of years ago with the idea that we want to
Speaker 3: help someone to get to the show that they want
Speaker 3: to get to. It's now extended to hundreds of channels.
Speaker 3: You can search across many many of the channels on
Speaker 3: our platform, and we just recently added the ability to
Speaker 3: for free. So if you want to watch something, let's
Speaker 3: say a comedy movie, you can say search for free
Speaker 3: comedy movie movies. It'll come back with search results and
Speaker 3: you can watch it on a number of different places.
Speaker 1: Now that's with voice search, right, So I can say
Speaker 1: search for free comedies, right, or free kids movies whatever?
Speaker 2: Can I do that with my type in search?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Can I type comedies and then free?
Speaker 3: It's probably simpler with your voice. We do find search though.
Speaker 3: Using text, there's only two or three characters that you
Speaker 3: need and you usually get to the piece of entertainment
Speaker 3: that you want to So I know that just today,
Speaker 3: I was looking for Samuel Jackson. So if I type
Speaker 3: in SA and by the time I get to m
Speaker 3: Samuel's at the top of my list, and I saw
Speaker 3: he had eighty seven movies available on Roku. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1: And also you're organizing things when you search by kind
Speaker 1: of like popularity too, Like you're kind of using some
Speaker 1: secret sauce in the background, right.
Speaker 3: Well, there's no secret. It's bipopularity based on what people
Speaker 3: are searching for, and then where it plays back is
Speaker 3: entirely based on price. So let's say you want to
Speaker 3: watch a movie, that movie might be available on three, four, five,
Speaker 3: six different channels, and we'll list them in order and
Speaker 3: based on price.
Speaker 1: Okay, very cool, and tell me about the you have
Speaker 1: Featured Free and you've got the Roku Channel.
Speaker 2: What's the difference between those two.
Speaker 3: Roku Channel was added to Roku about a year ago,
Speaker 3: and it's a channel on your home screen and it
Speaker 3: gives you quick access to free content, whether it's movies
Speaker 3: or TV shows. It's a great place to find something
Speaker 3: to watch at night. It is now so popular it's
Speaker 3: about the top five I think on our platform for
Speaker 3: who's using that. Another one that you just mentioned, Featured Free,
Speaker 3: was just added about a month ago, and this is
Speaker 3: straight from your home menu on Roku. You can slide
Speaker 3: into that and what you get there is free content
Speaker 3: from networks. These are the crown jewels of what's available
Speaker 3: playing today in season available on Roku.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times I've noticed with like let's
Speaker 1: say I have like an ABC app, Right, some of
Speaker 1: that stuff on that app is paywall?
Speaker 2: Do you have to have a subscription to ABC or whatever?
Speaker 2: And some of it is free?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So what a lot of people don't realize is
Speaker 3: that exactly what you said, Dan, that some of it
Speaker 3: is absolutely free, and that's why we work with these
Speaker 3: companies to bring it forward so that consumers can get
Speaker 3: to it right away.
Speaker 1: And again, just to be clear, I mean this is
Speaker 1: ads supported in many cases, so you might be seeing
Speaker 1: ads while you're watching a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, and what we find is that consumers don't
Speaker 3: mind the ad as long as.
Speaker 2: They don't have to pay for it, so free is
Speaker 2: pretty important.
Speaker 3: Free is a big driver of what Roku does.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about some of the other things that
Speaker 2: you showed me today.
Speaker 1: Spotify is coming back to Roku, and tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a number of different ways to listen
Speaker 3: to music on Roku. Amazon Music was added a few
Speaker 3: months ago. Pandora Premium is coming to Roku. That is exciting,
Speaker 3: and we're also excited to welcome back Spotify. They were
Speaker 3: off the platform a few months working on the user interface,
Speaker 3: but they're back on now.
Speaker 1: Okay, and now let's talk about the new speakers, because
Speaker 1: you've got these wireless speakers, which makes getting a good
Speaker 1: sound off your Roku TV nice and easily. Now I
Speaker 1: say Roku TV because I don't want to get people
Speaker 1: so excited that they think if they have a Roku
Speaker 1: they can just get like this surround, crazy awesome sound
Speaker 1: from you guys.
Speaker 2: So they do.
Speaker 1: Work with your TVs, your TCL branded Roku TV, or
Speaker 1: any Roku it's.
Speaker 3: Any Roku TV that's been sold from one of our
Speaker 3: manufactured partners works with these new set of speakers. And
Speaker 3: I'm glad you pointed out it is a Roku TV speaker,
Speaker 3: not for the players, and it's because we want to
Speaker 3: give a good sound experience for everything that you're playing
Speaker 3: on the television, whether you've connected something else, whether you're
Speaker 3: watching maybe something on the tuner, everything that plays in
Speaker 3: that television will come through these speakers.
Speaker 1: So that's why you can't just necessarily do it on
Speaker 1: the Roku, although maybe if people are accepting of that,
Speaker 1: we might in the future.
Speaker 3: If you get a lot of people send comments to you,
Speaker 3: we'll take.
Speaker 1: A let let them know it Roku that you want
Speaker 1: these speakers for every Roku box, not just the TVs.
Speaker 1: But they do sound great. You played some demos for me,
Speaker 1: and there's so many games we play with the sound
Speaker 1: on our TV. You got to raise the volume. You
Speaker 1: gott to lower the volume. Sometimes you're talking, you can't
Speaker 1: hear it. You put it really loud, and then you
Speaker 1: have an action. It's too crazy. So this kind of
Speaker 1: you have little tools that will help you level them do.
Speaker 3: And it's exactly that was my life before these speakers,
Speaker 3: So always riding that volume button. So if I'm watching
Speaker 3: at night and I don't want to wake up the kids,
Speaker 3: I have to turn down the volume, and then i
Speaker 3: can't hear the dialogue and I've got to turn up
Speaker 3: the volume. Or even switching between pieces of entertainment like
Speaker 3: a commercial comes on. Usually those are mastered at a
Speaker 3: higher volume level. So you're constantly riding that volume button. Well,
Speaker 3: with our speakers connected to the ROCUD television, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of horsepower that we have in there between the
Speaker 3: two different products, and because we run the software together
Speaker 3: on both of them, we can do things like volume leveling,
Speaker 3: which smooths out the volume between your content. We can
Speaker 3: also do things like night mode, which brings down those
Speaker 3: explosions and enhances the dialogue.
Speaker 2: And there's a separate setting.
Speaker 3: Specifically for speech clarity. This is actually the setting for
Speaker 3: me because I have a hard time understanding a lot
Speaker 3: of what the actors are saying. And when I turn
Speaker 3: that on, it really focuses on the frequencies, specifically for dialogue,
Speaker 3: enhances the dialogue so I can understand what they're saying.
Speaker 2: Important because I know you're saying this for you.
Speaker 1: But that happens in almost every movie where if you're
Speaker 1: watching in a movie theater, sure you hear everything because
Speaker 1: it's the loudest possible sound in the world. But if
Speaker 1: you're at home, you're a normal person that's not blasting
Speaker 1: your TV in front of everyone, So it is tough
Speaker 1: to hear these actors sometimes, and I'm glad you guys
Speaker 1: did that feature now. Also with these, by the way,
Speaker 1: the speakers connect your TV just by plugging them in,
Speaker 1: So it's a two pack for what two hundred.
Speaker 3: Dollars or two hundred dollars You get to see the
Speaker 3: two speakers. Also included as a new remote for your television.
Speaker 3: And then there's a brand new remote that we've included
Speaker 3: called the Roku Touch. And this remote is really meant
Speaker 3: to be used away from your television somewhere, so maybe
Speaker 3: it's in your kitchen or your desk, maybe the entryway,
Speaker 3: and it gives you quick control. Probably use mostly for music,
Speaker 3: if you want to start a podcast or if you
Speaker 3: want to start a piece of music. It's a great
Speaker 3: way to control from a distance.
Speaker 2: So it looks like a hockey puck kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It's got your basic controls on it for you know,
Speaker 1: playing things. And the main thing about this is any
Speaker 1: voice come that you can do on your TV.
Speaker 2: Or is this you separate voice command.
Speaker 3: It's the same operating system here, and so when you
Speaker 3: press that mic button, it gives you the same control
Speaker 3: that you would have from when you're sitting on your couch,
Speaker 3: but you can use it from anywhere that you can
Speaker 3: hear your speakers from.
Speaker 1: You've got a mic button, you've got volume up and down,
Speaker 1: you've got play pause, forward back, and then you've got
Speaker 1: these two preset buttons.
Speaker 3: Oh they're great and we use them a lot as
Speaker 3: we've been testing out their product at home. It's like
Speaker 3: a radio preset button. You press and hold it, it
Speaker 3: will save the last command that you gave to the television.
Speaker 3: For example, let's say I want to play jazz on Pandora,
Speaker 3: Press and hold that number one and it saves it
Speaker 3: for later use when I come back later on the day,
Speaker 3: I want to get access to that, I just press
Speaker 3: that button and I get to my music.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: So the way I could describe this as kind of
Speaker 1: like it's almost like Roku's answer to a Google Mini
Speaker 1: or a almost like.
Speaker 2: A smart speaker, but just for your Roku.
Speaker 1: So it has some functionality that's built in, but it
Speaker 1: sits somewhere outside of your TV. And speaking of Google,
Speaker 1: you guys are also doing some integration with them now too.
Speaker 3: We are. We're excited to open up the platform for
Speaker 3: compatibility to those devices that have Google Assistant built in.
Speaker 3: So if you've got a Google Home or a Google
Speaker 3: Mini or another Google product that has Google Assistant in it,
Speaker 3: you can control your rokud player or your Roku Television
Speaker 3: through the voice on that product.
Speaker 2: And so what will I be able to do with
Speaker 2: that integration.
Speaker 3: Everything you can do with the Roku today, the same
Speaker 3: examples that we just gave with the Roku Touch, except
Speaker 3: to be hands free through the Google Assistant.
Speaker 1: Okay, so sort of the same things that you would
Speaker 1: command for the TV or the Roku Player, but using
Speaker 1: the Google kind of interface and the hot word too.
Speaker 3: And what you said before you know, Roku really is
Speaker 3: a switcherland of streaming. So we open up our platform
Speaker 3: to multiple different kinds of content, and now open up
Speaker 3: a platform to multiple different kinds of devices.
Speaker 1: Okay, and tell me about the new devices you've got,
Speaker 1: So to lower priced four K these are the kind
Speaker 1: of your least expensive four K yet it is.
Speaker 3: So with the launch of the new Roku Premier and
Speaker 3: the Recup Premiere Plus. These are the lowest price four
Speaker 3: K players that we've launched ever to date. And it's
Speaker 3: really building on the trend of four K in the home.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of four K TVs being sold, a
Speaker 3: lot of them. Of course they're going to be Roku TVs,
Speaker 3: but some of them aren't. This is why our streaming
Speaker 3: players business exists. That's why it still keeps on growing.
Speaker 3: And these two new products starting at thirty nine to
Speaker 3: ninety nine for the Rokue Premiere and then forty nine
Speaker 3: ninety nine for the Premier Plus, are a great add
Speaker 3: to any television.
Speaker 2: Okay, and let's just go through the differences.
Speaker 1: So the Premiere you get basically your standard kind of
Speaker 1: four K streaming player.
Speaker 2: Yep, what is the plus add on top of that?
Speaker 3: The Plus is really a difference from the remote, so
Speaker 3: both the players are exactly the same. They'll work with
Speaker 3: regular high def televisions or work with four K televisions,
Speaker 3: whatever television you have. The difference on the remote is
Speaker 3: the Premier Plus offers the ability to use voice, so
Speaker 3: it's good a voice button on there. It also will
Speaker 3: control your TVs power and volumes no matter what TV
Speaker 3: you have got it connected to. Will be able to
Speaker 3: get rid of want to be remotes as you're watching Rocan, so.
Speaker 2: You have a volume on the remote. We do actually
Speaker 2: and power.
Speaker 1: To me, that's worth the ten dollars, but it's an
Speaker 1: exclusive to Walmart, right right. So my advice, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna get one of these two, you gotta go with
Speaker 1: the one that's ten dollars more. Find a Walmart because
Speaker 1: just having that one less remote in your house is
Speaker 1: so much easier. And the voice command too, I mean,
Speaker 1: now everything's done with voice. So I like the fact
Speaker 1: that you're offering them to and the thirty nine and
Speaker 1: nine is a nice price point, but go with the
Speaker 1: extra ten dollars and get the one with all the
Speaker 1: features that you.
Speaker 2: Can for that price.
Speaker 1: And you also mentioned something I thought was interesting about
Speaker 1: the kind of you guys live in this world of
Speaker 1: every day you wake up at Roku trying to make
Speaker 1: streaming TV better and people always ask me, you know,
Speaker 1: should I get a smart TV? I always say no,
Speaker 1: with the exception of something like a Roku Smart TV,
Speaker 1: because the software in there is updated and it's made nice.
Speaker 1: Right other manufacturers you're getting kind of random stuff. So anyway,
Speaker 1: my point is to you guys listening, is I always
Speaker 1: say get a box and add it to your TV,
Speaker 1: or go with a TV that has smart software that
Speaker 1: is from a company like Roku.
Speaker 3: It's a problem that's existed with so called smart TVs
Speaker 3: up until now that they create a wireless updateable product,
Speaker 3: but they don't update it. And this is something that
Speaker 3: Roku's done from the very very beginning. Everyone of our
Speaker 3: products gets updates on a consistent basis, including our televisions.
Speaker 3: They run the same operating system as our players, and
Speaker 3: when we roll out a feature, we roll it out
Speaker 3: every the recup TV while the speakers work with every
Speaker 3: one of our televisions. This is something that we think
Speaker 3: is very important and glad you're pointing out.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, so you're on board.
Speaker 1: With me, but I agree because it's like your company
Speaker 1: that your entire goal is to make streaming better every day,
Speaker 1: which means the apps, all the apps I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the screen, the Netflix, the Pandora, the Ihearts, the Hulus,
Speaker 1: they're updating those.
Speaker 2: Whereas you buy.
Speaker 1: Smart TV from one of these manufacturers that could be
Speaker 1: a big name. Yes there's a Netflix app on there,
Speaker 1: but you might not get it updated as often as
Speaker 1: you'd like. And I'm a tech person. I want my stuff.
Speaker 1: I love app updates as like one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things on my phone, my TV.
Speaker 2: Anything.
Speaker 1: Love app updates because that means I'm getting new features
Speaker 1: and things are getting better. So is there anything I
Speaker 1: missed that you that I failed to mention to you?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm glad you're pointing out. The agnostic view
Speaker 3: of Roku is that we just want you to watch
Speaker 3: a little bit more television. We don't really play favorites
Speaker 3: of where you watch it, so that's why we order
Speaker 3: things in price and we play well with others. We
Speaker 3: just want you to watch a stream a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And one more future I forgot to mention I do
Speaker 1: like is the private listening, which means you can plug
Speaker 1: some headphones into your remote control. And that's a big
Speaker 1: deal because when you have your first kid, you realize
Speaker 1: just how important it is to watch TV in silence
Speaker 1: because you don't want to wake them up.
Speaker 3: It's fantastic. So on the Roku Ultra, we are including
Speaker 3: now some premium headphones from JBL. It's a great value.
Speaker 3: They're valued at thirty nine dollars. We're putting that together
Speaker 3: with the Roco Ultra at its consistent price of ninety
Speaker 3: nine dollars. But for those people who don't have that
Speaker 3: remote with the headphone jack, this is fantastic. Through our
Speaker 3: mobile app, you can do private listening through the mobile
Speaker 3: app on any one of our players.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's huge.
Speaker 1: You just plug a pair of headphones into your phone,
Speaker 1: listen through the app.
Speaker 3: And if both you and your wife want to listen
Speaker 3: at the same time, you can both open up the
Speaker 3: same app and both listen at the same time.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's great. Okay, and give me some times on
Speaker 1: these things. So when of the speakers come out. Speakers
Speaker 1: are available for pre order now. They're gonna start shipping
Speaker 1: in November.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: The players will start taking pre orders at the end
Speaker 3: of September. They're gonna get to stores in.
Speaker 2: October, okay, and Spotify.
Speaker 3: Spotify is coming. I think it's somewhere in October. It
Speaker 3: takes a while to roll out to all the different platforms.
Speaker 2: Okay, so Spotify October. All right.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Lloyd Clark, director of product management
Speaker 1: here at Roku, thanks so.
Speaker 2: Much for joining me.
Speaker 1: And if you like the podcast, do me a favor
Speaker 1: and take a screenshot of you listening and share it
Speaker 1: with your friends on social media.
Speaker 2: I'm Rich jamiro You can.
Speaker 1: Find links to everything I talk about here in the
Speaker 1: show notes or on my website, rich on tech dot tv.
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you real soon.