Roku on Thursday said it ended 2023 with 80 million active accounts, which amounted to 29.1 billion streaming hours.
The company, which reported its fourth-quarter results on Thursday, said it added 4.2 million net new accounts in the fourth quarter. The company noted that its base of users is larger than the subscribers of the six largest traditional pay-TV providers combined.
But the smart TV company also ended the year losing money, although its losses dramatically narrowed from a year ago.
The results show a company moving in the right direction from a business perspective. Beyond selling TV sticks and smart TVs, Roku has shown tremendous progress growing an audience for its Roku Channel, which has become one of the top streaming services — outranking even some subscription options. That’s resulted in the company creating a healthy advertising business even as traditional media companies have struggled.
In the third quarter, the company tallied 75.8 million active accounts as streaming hours hit 26.7 billion.
Roku, which boasts the No. 1 smart TV operating system in the U.S., also unveiled a new line of premium televisions at the end of the year. They’re expected to come out later in 2024.
But the shift towards more of a media company is clear in its numbers. Roku’s “platform” streaming business generated $828.9 million vs. the devices business, which generated $155.6 million.
Overall, the company posted a loss of $78.3 million, or 55 cents a share, significantly narrowing its year-earlier loss of $237.2 million, or $1.70 a share.
Revenue rose to $984.4 million from $867.1 million a year ago.
Analysts, on average, expected Roku to lose 54 cents a share on revenue of $968.2 million, according to Yahoo Finance.