Speaker 1: Rich Debiro here, Rich on Tech, and I've got some
Speaker 1: new Roku news. Joining me is Mark Eally, Vice president
Speaker 1: at Roku. Mark, thanks for joining me on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All Right, So you've got a lot of news that
Speaker 1: you're dropping today on the Roku platform. Let's start with
Speaker 1: something that everyone with an iPhone basically is affected by,
Speaker 1: and this is Airplay being added to the platform. Tell
Speaker 1: me about that.
Speaker 2: We're super excited.
Speaker 3: We've been working with Apple for quite a while on
Speaker 3: trying to deliver really a great iOS experience for our customers,
Speaker 3: and so we're rolling out Airplay to support as long
Speaker 3: actually along with Apple Home Kit to most of our
Speaker 3: four K devices, both TVs and players, and we're really
Speaker 3: excited because it's going to give our customers the ability
Speaker 3: to take their videos, their photos, their music and play
Speaker 3: it back on the big screen in the house.
Speaker 1: Now is this now? I know you said airplay too,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like their new version of airplay
Speaker 1: that's you know, advanced. Was there airplay on the Roku
Speaker 1: platform before in other ways?
Speaker 2: No, this is the first.
Speaker 3: Time that that we're bringing airplay support to the to
Speaker 3: the Roku os and and it really kind of complements
Speaker 3: the other ecosystems that we support. So it really gives
Speaker 3: our customers just a great amount of choice in the
Speaker 3: kind of content that they can then stream to the
Speaker 3: big screen.
Speaker 1: I mean it's huge, not just for streaming, but also
Speaker 1: if I just want to show a picture from my
Speaker 1: phone on the TV screen, it's right there to do it.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's awesome. I mean you can.
Speaker 3: I think photos are great, Music's great, it's also great.
Speaker 3: It's just a second screen for your for your laptop,
Speaker 3: I mean, for education. So many ways you can use it.
Speaker 3: And it's available across you know, a wide range of
Speaker 3: really affordable four K devices from Roku. So so we're
Speaker 3: thrilled about it.
Speaker 1: Very cool. All right, let's move on to the Roku channel.
Speaker 1: So you you have seen a lot of popularity with
Speaker 1: the Roku channel. People love watching free stuff. It's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. People think of streaming in two ways. It's
Speaker 1: like what can I get for free? And also what
Speaker 1: do I subscribe to? But free is obviously the best.
Speaker 1: People love free. So with the Roku Channel, you are
Speaker 1: now coming out with a dedicated app that you can
Speaker 1: get on iOS and Android. No Roku device necessary. Tell
Speaker 1: me why you did this and what we can expect
Speaker 1: from this app.
Speaker 3: Well, as you said, you know, our customers love free
Speaker 3: and the Rookue channel has become so popular it's become
Speaker 3: one of the really top channels on our platform, and
Speaker 3: it's because you've got this great mix of ad supported content,
Speaker 3: plus you can add subscription content if you want to,
Speaker 3: and we found that that our customers want to be
Speaker 3: able to access this everywhere, not just on their Rokue device,
Speaker 3: but through their browsers and through their multile devices.
Speaker 2: And so by creating a.
Speaker 3: Dedicated app, we're really broadening the reach and appeal to
Speaker 3: customers that maybe don't have a Rookue device but would
Speaker 3: really benefit from that free content that you can get
Speaker 3: through the Rokue channel.
Speaker 2: So we're really excited to roll the out.
Speaker 1: And any thing that you subscribe to Throughku you can
Speaker 1: also get on the app as well.
Speaker 3: That's right exactly, So premium content that you've signed up
Speaker 3: for on a Rokue device or through our browser experience
Speaker 3: you can access on the app. And that just kind
Speaker 3: of creates a really rich experience for our customers.
Speaker 1: And do people I mean I mentioned that people love free.
Speaker 1: But I mean, are you seeing on your end that
Speaker 1: the roku channel is just continuing to grow?
Speaker 3: Oh, it's huge, it's I mean, we've got tens of
Speaker 3: millions of people out there that are watching the Rokue
Speaker 3: channel on a regular basis. It's become one of the
Speaker 3: top channels on our platform. And it's because it's not
Speaker 3: only is it free content, but it's great free content.
Speaker 3: And we also have kids and family related content. There's
Speaker 3: stuff that pretty much appeals to everyone.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of the new devices. So you
Speaker 1: have I'm counting my notes here, one, two, three, four, five,
Speaker 1: at least five devices, six devices, seven devices at this point?
Speaker 1: Am I right on that? Or is there more?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: Not including the newest one we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: So you have about eight devices to choose from.
Speaker 3: We have a range of devices, and the reason we
Speaker 3: do is that we want to make streaming accessible to
Speaker 3: the broadest range of folks, from people that are first
Speaker 3: time streamers that just want to try it out for
Speaker 3: the first time to people that are really dedicated to
Speaker 3: it and want all the bells and whistles, and so
Speaker 3: we try to hit all of these different price points
Speaker 3: in between and really deliver a set of streaming platform
Speaker 3: streaming devices that really create a great streaming experience for everyone.
Speaker 1: So for the streamers, they range from thirty dollars to
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars. And let's talk about the newest Roku Ultra.
Speaker 1: This is ninety nine ninety nine and this is your
Speaker 1: flagship device. I mean, this is for the person who
Speaker 1: wants everything that Roku has to offer in their top
Speaker 1: of the line device, new processor, new form factor, better wireless.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the importance of wireless when it comes
Speaker 1: to a streaming device.
Speaker 3: Well, you said, I mean, it's so important, and it's
Speaker 3: because of course you're streaming more. You know, people want
Speaker 3: to stream high resolution, high quality content four K content.
Speaker 3: In the case of Roku Ultra, you can now stream
Speaker 3: Gulby Vision content. It's you want to get that to
Speaker 3: you know, the best, you know screens in your house,
Speaker 3: wherever they may be, and it might be really far
Speaker 3: from your router. So having a really really great wireless
Speaker 3: performance means you're going to have a great picture no
Speaker 3: matter where that device is set up in your home.
Speaker 3: And it's also important to remember even if you don't
Speaker 3: have a really large house, you might have a lot
Speaker 3: of wireless interference. So many of us are on our
Speaker 3: computers all day, you know, doing zoom calls and other things.
Speaker 3: There's lots of lots of video moving back and forth.
Speaker 3: There's phones, there's devices, and having really high quality you know,
Speaker 3: radio system built into the Roku Ultra means that you're
Speaker 3: really getting the best possible streaming wherever you put it,
Speaker 3: and and that just a better experience.
Speaker 1: And on the back of the device, you've got USB
Speaker 1: three point zero for the first time.
Speaker 3: We've had USB two in the past. We've upgraded it
Speaker 3: in the new versions of USB three point zero. It's
Speaker 3: a great way for folks that have their own video
Speaker 3: libraries or photo libraries on memory sticks or USB hard drives.
Speaker 3: You can plug them in and access it through our
Speaker 3: media player, and just another way to get content into
Speaker 3: your Rokue device and then pick up on the big screen.
Speaker 1: And another first, you're throwing Bluetooth, sorry, Bluetooth into the
Speaker 1: mix on this device for what reason? What can I
Speaker 1: do with the Bluetooth on the Roku Ultra.
Speaker 3: Well, what you can do is it's designed for pairing
Speaker 3: for your phone to the Roki Ultra, so you can
Speaker 3: stream audio stream music, music content from your phone to
Speaker 3: the device and then play it back through whatever the
Speaker 3: av system is that you've connected your Ultra to. And
Speaker 3: we just wanted to give our customers just the broadest
Speaker 3: range of different sources that they could choose from, whether
Speaker 3: it's four KHDR content, Dolby Vision content, Bluetooth content from
Speaker 3: their phone, you know, whatever it is, airplay content. You
Speaker 3: can get all of that onto the Ultra and then
Speaker 3: displayed on your favorite TV.
Speaker 1: So you basically, Roku likes to give folks options. That's it.
Speaker 1: I've always called you the sort of the Switzerland of
Speaker 1: streaming because it's just whatever, however you want to do it,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to watch, it's generally available on Roku.
Speaker 1: It's very flexible as a viewing platform, it is.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's you know, for us, we've always believe
Speaker 3: that that you know, this is the streaming decade.
Speaker 2: Streaming is just going. It's just incredible.
Speaker 3: So many people are cutting the cord, they're moving over
Speaker 3: to streaming, and we want to make sure that it's
Speaker 3: super easy for anyone to get get on board, get
Speaker 3: a product set up, be up and running and streaming
Speaker 3: their favorite shows and do that to the widest possible
Speaker 3: audience and that's really informed all of the different products
Speaker 3: that we built out.
Speaker 1: Another new product you're coming out with is the Roku
Speaker 1: stream Bar, and this is kind of a soundbar that
Speaker 1: has Roku built into it. Explain what the advantage is there.
Speaker 3: So we launched our Roku Smart Soundbar last year and
Speaker 3: it was a soundbar with a player built into it,
Speaker 3: so you've got the full OS experience built in. And
Speaker 3: our idea was to put these two things together to
Speaker 3: create a really great experience for our customers. And what
Speaker 3: we found was that people loved it. I mean, they
Speaker 3: absolutely love having great sound, and so we thought, well, gee,
Speaker 3: how can we bring this great sound and great streaming
Speaker 3: together but reach a broader audience and maybe folks that
Speaker 3: have never thought about a soundbar before.
Speaker 2: So this new stream bar is a whole new idea.
Speaker 2: It's really a.
Speaker 3: Super compact soundbar and streamer together and it's designed to
Speaker 3: go under pretty much any TV. It's only fourteen inches wide,
Speaker 3: it's less than two and a half inches high, and
Speaker 3: it's got these incredible high performance drivers in there that
Speaker 3: really pump out a lot of great sound. And it
Speaker 3: was a really clever signal processing in our rooku os,
Speaker 3: we were able to steer that sound even wider, so
Speaker 3: it sounds much bigger than it looks. And I think
Speaker 3: when people hear it, they're going to be really impressed.
Speaker 1: And how important is sound in your research and just
Speaker 1: you know, in general as someone watching TV. I mean,
Speaker 1: these these thin TVs, they're not known for their speakers.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: And it's amazing if you think about where we are now.
Speaker 3: You know, the movie theater is really in our living
Speaker 3: rooms now, We're spending so much time watching content at home.
Speaker 3: But those TV sets that are out there really were
Speaker 3: never designed for great sound. They're designed for great picture.
Speaker 3: So when you bring a great set of speakers, if
Speaker 3: you can bring a soundbar, stream bar into your environment,
Speaker 3: it's like going from black and white to color.
Speaker 2: It just really makes it so much richer.
Speaker 3: Not only can you hear the dialogue much better, but
Speaker 3: you're really you know, enveloped more in the experience. And
Speaker 3: in fact, people have told us that, you know, the
Speaker 3: actual video looks better just by adding better sound. So
Speaker 3: it's it's one of those incredible things that really enriches
Speaker 3: the whole streaming experience.
Speaker 1: When can we expect to see these new features and products.
Speaker 3: So we're really exciting to be rolling out OS nine
Speaker 3: to four. It'll be rolling out through through the fall
Speaker 3: quarter here through the end of the year. To our devices,
Speaker 3: the Roku Ultra and the Roku stream Bar are both
Speaker 3: going to be on the shelf in mid October and
Speaker 3: we can't wait for folks to get their hands on them.
Speaker 1: And Mark, what are you streaming these days? Anything interesting?
Speaker 1: Are you done? By the time you get out of work,
Speaker 1: You're like, no more streaming for me.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, I'm running through Shit's creek right now.
Speaker 3: It's so much fun and I'm really enjoying that.
Speaker 2: That's the end of the day wind.
Speaker 1: Down, and that just it's funny. When I lived in
Speaker 1: New York City, this was many I mean I'm talking
Speaker 1: I think it was ten years ago or something. They
Speaker 1: had those advertisements all over them. That show has been
Speaker 1: around for a while, but it seems like people are
Speaker 1: just discovering it.
Speaker 3: Exactly and they just discovered it. And that's a fun
Speaker 3: wind down for me.
Speaker 1: All right. Mark Eally, Vice President of Retail Product Strategy
Speaker 1: at Roku, thanks so much for joining me today. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you really appreciate it all right.
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