Every week we hold a Cord Cutting Q&A on YouTube answering your cord cutting questions. We understand not everyone can make our weekly Q&A, so we want to answer some of the most popular questions we have been getting.
Today, we have a special Cord Cutting Q&A. In this video, we look at Roku banning piracy channels, CES 2019, and the future of Cord Cutters News’ YouTube channel.
Roku Bans Piracy Channels
In 2018, Roku started to heavily crack down on piracy channels after a court in Mexico banned the sale of Roku players and TVs because of piracy. As popular unofficial piracy channels got banned by Roku, many started to loudly complain.
One of the most popular questions I get is wouldn’t Roku make more money by allowing piracy because it would drive sales of Roku players. So, today I want to address this common question.
So, let’s say Roku decided to miss out on possible sales from Mexico and allow piracy with the hope of getting more device sales. The problem with that is Roku makes most of their money from subscriptions and ads.
When you subscribe to a service like HBO NOW through your Roku account, Roku gets a small cut of that sale. Also, most of the ads you see on free streaming services come from Roku. With piracy, Roku does not get a cut from subscriptions and the ads you see on piracy services are typically not from Roku.
Roku uses the Google model of devices. Sell the device or service cheap with the hope of making it up by delivering ads and selling subscriptions. With piracy, Roku gets nothing and it’s difficult hard to make a big profit when selling streaming players under $50 without ads and subscriptions.
Now add in the loss of sales in Mexico, a country with a fast-growing streaming market, and you see why Roku has no incentive to turn a blind eye to piracy.
CES 2019
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the biggest shows in the world. Packed full of new TVs, gadgets, and services, it gives us a look into what will be new in 2019. Once again Cord Cutters News is headed to CES with the goal of covering all the best cord cutting news.
Keep an eye on our YouTube Channel and our site for great CES 2019 coverage.
The Future of Cord Cutters News
2018 was a great year for Cord Cutters News. We hired full-time staff for the first time and moved into a new office. In 2019, look for us to continue to expand with the goal of moving into a larger office to help us improve both our news coverage and YouTube videos.
To help support the growth of Cord Cutters News we have added a membership option on YouTube. For $4.99 a month you can get exclusive access to a private Q&A every month. More importantly, you will be helping Cord Cutters News grow and hopefully help you get even more from cord cutting. You can learn more about our memberships HERE.
We will go into more depth on our 2019 plans soon.
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