Roku on Wednesday reported continued growth in active users in the third quarter, but saw its loss widen from a year ago.
The smart TV platform company said it had 75.8 million active accounts in the period, up 2.3 million from the second quarter. Streaming hours totaled 26.7 billion, up 4.9 billion, or 5%, over a year ago.
The smart TV platform has been steadily expanding its presence, both through its own devices, from dongles to set-top boxes, and with partnerships with TV makers such as TCL, Hisense and Westinghouse. The company has become in many ways like the Microsoft of TVs, acting as a neutral third party powering the operating systems of many TV brands, with only larger companies like Samsung, Vizio and LG retaining their own OS. Like Microsoft, Roku also sells its own branded televisions.
Roku pointed to strength in content distribution and advertising for its revenue growth. The company has pushed its Roku Channel, a free, ad-supported service that has increasingly become a force in streaming. The channel is in the top 10 rundown of streamers, according to Nielsen, topping other services including Peacock, Paramount+ and Pluto, another free ad-supported streaming service.
The company said that while the overall ad market continues to face pressure, Roku outperformed the overall ad market and the linear TV ad market in the U.S.
In total, the company posted a loss of $330.1 million, or $2.33 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $122.2 million, or 88 cents a share. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, however, swung to a profit of $43.4 million from a loss of $34.4 million a year ago.
Last month, Roku rolled out a new update to its smart TV OS to make finding new content easier.
Revenue rose to $912 million from $761.4 million a year ago.
Analysts, on average, forecast a loss of $2.08 a share on revenue of $853.2 million, according to Yahoo Finance.
Roku said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $405 million and adjusted EBITDA of $10 million.