April 30 - Roku raised its annual platform revenue forecast on Thursday, signaling confidence that advertisers will continue to spend on its streaming platform, sending its shares up 10% in extended trading.
Roku is benefiting from the rise of streaming media, as more households make connected TV (CTV) devices their primary viewing platform.
Adverisers are following suit, diverting their spending from traditional linear television toward streaming, as CTV offers more precise audience targeting and measurement.
Earlier in April, Roku announced that it has surpassed 100 million streaming households worldwide, reflecting the broader shift in viewing habits.
The company's Platform segment, whichincludes advertising on its free, ad-supported service, The Roku Channel, as well as revenue-sharing agreements with other content services on its platform, has been a growth driver.
The segment's revenue grew 28% to $1.13 billion in the first quarter, beating an estimate of $1.01 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Roku now sees 2026 platform revenue growing 21% to $5 billion, compared with its prior projection of an increase of 18% to $4.89 billion.
Roku, however, cautioned that higher memory costs will weigh on its device margins in the second half of the year, but said its Roku TV OS requires significantly less dynamic memory (DRAM) and storage memory (Flash) than other platforms.
Quarterly devices revenue came in at $118 million, down 16% from the same period last year.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
