SAN JOSE, Calif – OTT platform Roku last week reported total net revenue of $260.9 million in the third quarter of 2019 ended September 30th, up 50% compared to the end of Q3 2018 (all figures in U.S. dollars).
Platform revenue (separate from device revenue) is 69% of total revenue and it grew by 79% year-over-year to $179.3 million.
Active accounts climbed 36% since last Sept. 30 to 32.3 million, and the company saw a net addition of 1.7 million customers since the end of Q2. Streaming hours increased 900 million hours over last quarter, to 10.3 billion and average revenue per user (ARPU) of $22.58 was up 30% YoY. The company also said its monetized video ad impressions again more than doubled since the end of the third quarter of 2018.
“The Roku Channel contributed to this growth as impressions within the channel are growing faster than our impressions within the overall platform,” says the company press release.
However, expenses climbed in the quarter, which led to a net loss of $26.5 million in Q3, more than double the $11.7 million net loss in the comparable quarter last year.
“During Q3, we saw strong unit sales for both Roku TV (apps embedded in smart TVs) and players. We continue to lead in smart TV operating system (OS) licensing as the #1 licensed TV OS in North America. We believe that Roku TV represented more than one in three smart TVs sold in the U.S. during the first nine months of the year,” reads the press release.
So, as ever more platforms such as Disney+ and Apple TV+ come online, which are incorporated within Roku, the outlook gets better for the company. In September, the company introduced a new lineup of streaming players with an entry price point of $29.99, with a goal to drive scale and reach of the platform “rather than optimizing for hardware gross profit,” added the release.
