Roku has passed 100 million households worldwide. It is a major milestone for the online video platform. It includes homes using a Roku streaming player, a television made by Roku, or a Roku television made by one of its partner manufacturers. They all use the same Roku OS and provide a similar user experience.

Roku defines a streaming household as the number of distinct user accounts streaming on the platform in a given 30-day period. It passed the 100 million mark in April.

The company claims its streaming devices are used by more than half of all the 100 million or more broadband households in the United States.

In the United States, citing Comscore data, Roku says that it accounts for 44% of total hours spent watching connected television programming, with Amazon at 14%, Samsung a 12%, and Google at 5%.

Roku devices are available in more than 15 countries around the world, including Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

“Surpassing 100 million streaming households is a defining moment, not just for Roku, but for the future of television,” said Anthony Wood, the founder and chief executive of Roku.

“We’re helping shape the entertainment landscape by making it easier to discover great content, more affordable to watch it, and more effective for advertisers and partners around the world to connect with audiences.”

www.roku.com

Nielsen published its monthly Gauge report on the share of television viewing for February, postponed until mid-April amid tension between broadcasters and online video platforms on viewing measurement methodology. When it was eventually published, The Gauge showed that streaming reached 48% of viewing, its highest so far. That was despite the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, which did well for NBC.

Traditional television made up 41.7% of viewing, down from 42.7% the previous month.

In measuring media distributors, Nielsen adds together NBCUniversal and Versant, a spin-off company, giving them a combined 13.1% of total television usage. That was boosted by the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, which also drove online viewing on Peacock.

The Nielsen announcement said: “NBCU-Versant commanded the February TV landscape and captured the top spot among media companies”.

There was quite a bit of preening the Peacock, and not a lot of talk about YouTube or Netflix.

Without the addition of Versant, NBCUniversal would have had 10%, putting it behind YouTube at 12.7%.

YouTube led the previous month with 12.5%. NBCUniversal and Versant ranked fourth, behind Netflix, with 8.5%.

The publication of The Gauge report was delayed after some online platforms reportedly expressed concern that it would show a significant decline in their audience share after a planned change in methodology.

Nielsen delayed the report and postponed the introduction of the new methodology, prompting complaints from broadcasters.

The Nielsen numbers also came with notices that these figures do not reflect its television ratings that inform advertising sales, saying that it is working on updates to reflect these for the next television season.

While the numbers are presented to one decimal place and industry observers get very excited about small shifts, metrics like The Gauge are at best indicative.

What they have served to show in recent years is the slow and steady growth of online video in the United States.

That said, traditional television still represents over 40% of viewing. Whether or not YouTube is television, it is only 12.7% of television viewing, if these numbers are to be believed at all.

www.nielsen.com

Everyone TV, the company behind the Freely television platform in the United Kingdom, has announced plans for what it calls Spotlight Channels in the Freely TV Guide for connected television operating system partners. Up to 11 channels will be available for partners. Only one has so far been confirmed as a launch partner.

Freely Spotlight Channels will be allocated on currently vacant channel 31, and on channels 90-99, occupying the current gap between channels 82 and 141. Channel placement will be offered to connected television operating system partners on Freely devices. There will also be a dedicated Showcase Channel at 100, where viewers can see guides on how to use Freely.

V, formerly known as VIDAA, which provides the VIDAA operating system that supports Hisense televisions, has been confirmed as the launch partner and will be the first to bring a selection of their online channels to the Freely guide later in the year.

Everyone TV announced that Freely passed a million weekly users over Christmas. There are about 27.5 million television households in the United Kingdom, with around 6-8 million televisions purchased each year.

Hisense was the first partner for Freely when it launched two years ago. Guy Edri, the co-founder and chief executive of V, described it as “a natural next step in that journey”.

V is projected to rank third among Smart TV operating platforms in Europe by the end of 2026, extending beyond Hisense to other brands.

Freely is available on other brands of television, including Bush, JVC, Panasonic, Philips, Sharp, TCL, and Toshiba.

A number of leading manufacturers, including market leaders Samsung and LG, have declined to join the Freely platform. They have their own offerings of hundreds of online channels on their respective platforms.

Deep Halder, the chief commercial officer at Everyone TV, was previously at Samsung Electronics for over 12 years, where he was latterly responsible for smart televisions in the United Kingdom.

“As Freely continues to scale, we are focused on building a platform that delivers long-term value across the whole ecosystem,” he said. “Enabling CTV OS partner participation in defined parts of the TV guide allows us to deliver unprecedented value to our CTV OS partners in new ways, while staying true to our commitment to UK audiences to ensure free, trusted TV remains easy to discover in the streaming age.”

Everyone TV is jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. It is responsible for the Freeview, Freesat, and Freely platforms.

www.everyonetv.co.uk
www.freely.co.uk
v-home.com