“Streaming media players continue to stake out a growing portion of the connected home,” said Barbara Kraus, director of research, Parks Associates. “Roku devices are now the third most widely used connected CE device, trailing only Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation as the most common platforms to access online video content on a TV set. It is a rapid ascendance for streaming media players, and Roku in particular, especially considering the broad base of gaming console ownership compared to the lower penetration of streaming media devices.”
Roku is by far the leader in set-top boxes made for streaming content. To even be close to the big gaming companies like Microsoft and Sony with their large following of gamers, who also use their devices for streaming, is a huge achievement.
Even with Roku’s solid market lead, the competition for your living room is heating up. Apple, Google, and Amazon are all making serious efforts to become the most popular living room device. For just set top boxes there are 44.6 million US households that own a streaming-media set top box.
Whereas cord cutting is an established way of life for a large number of Americans, there are only an estimated 10 million cord cutters in the United States. Cable TV companies still have over 100 million TV subscribers. The growth opportunity for streaming services and devices is huge, and we are just at the beginning of the growing movement to leave cable TV and stream content online.