Roku Says Ad Sales Growth is Slowing, Platform Sees Growth
Roku Inc. saw an increase in advertising cancellations due to the COVID-19 crisis but still expects to record ad-revenue growth for the full year.
Ad cancellations have been partially offset by shift of spending to Roku platform, company said.
Roku saw first-quarter streaming hours grow to 13.2 billion from 8.9 billion a year earlier. The number of active accounts on Roku’s platform climbed to 39.8 million from 36.9 million in the fourth quarter and 29.1 million in the prior-year first quarter.
It also disclosed that viewership and account growth accelerated in April as the number of active accounts grew about 38% from a year earlier while the number of new accounts rose by more than 70%. Streaming hours climbed by about 80% on a year-over-year basis.
Purchases of subscription streaming services through the Roku platform have increased since mid-March, the company said in its earnings release, but Roku has also seen “higher-than-normal cancellations as overall advertising budgets have declined.” These have been partially offset by shifts in ad spending to the Roku platform from traditional budgets, according to the release.
Roku posted a net loss of $54.6 million for its first quarter, compared with a loss of $9.7 million in the year-earlier quarter.
Roku posted revenue of $320.8 million, up from $207 million a year prior. The company had previously disclosed in an April update that it expected first-quarter revenue of $307 million to $317 million and a net loss of $55 million to $60 million.
Sales for the first quarter consisted of $88.2 million from the player business and $232.6 million from the platform business, which includes advertising and licensing revenue.
Netflix Inc. added nearly 16 million subscribers in the first quarter, and Walt Disney Co. topped the 50-million subscriber mark with its Disney+ service less than six months after the offering first debuted.