Roku Defends Position in Smart TV Space as Amazon Licensees Announce Fire TVs
LAS VEGAS -- Roku took to the wires Tuesday to promote its position in the smart TV streaming market following the news that Seiki, Westinghouse Electronics and Element Electronics will begin shipping this year 4K Ultra HD TVs with Amazon Fire TV built in.
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As of last month, with the launch of Roku TV in Mexico, 100 Roku TV models were available in the North American market, said Roku in a news release, and Roku TVs accounted for 13 percent of all U.S. smart TV sales. HD and 4K Roku TV models are available from Hisense, Hitachi, Insignia, Sharp and TCL, and Roku TV climbed from the ninth-largest brand in 2015 to the sixth in 2016, it said. This year, Roku expects to have 150 branded TVs in the market -- a combination of HD, 4K and high-dynamic-range models, said the company. Third-tier brand Element is a Roku licensee, too, it noted. At CES, Roku TVs will be demonstrated in the Changhong, Hisense, Hitachi, TCL and Dish Sling TV booths and in Dolby and Element Electronics suites, Roku said.
The Amazon Fire TVs will be stiff competition for Roku, bringing access to over-the-air live TV programing, streaming TV and movies, music and games -- and Alexa voice control. Amazon Fire TVs will offer users access to more than 7,000 channels, games, apps and Alexa skills, including over 300,000 TV episodes and movies from Amazon Video, HBO Now, Hulu and other content providers, said Seiki, Element and Westinghouse in the announcement.
Amazon Prime customers get unlimited access to Prime Video and “thousands of movies and TV episodes” for free with membership. Prime users also can get HBO, Showtime, Starz, PBS Kids and other subscription video services, paying “only ... for the channels they want -- no cable required, no additional apps to download, and easy online cancellation,” said the companies.
Roku pushed its selection of more than 450,000 movies and TV episodes through 4,500 streaming channels. It also touted its “unbiased” search and discovery features that span 150 top streaming channels, are ranked by price and show where movies and TV shows are free or cheapest to watch. And it highlighted Roku TV’s recently announced Live TV Pause feature, regular software updates with new streaming channels and features and a user interface for visually impaired customers.
The Seiki, Westinghouse and Element TVs will be available in 43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch screen sizes. The TVs will incorporate 3 GB memory, 16 GB internal storage and Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, said the companies. Prices will be announced closer to release, set for later this year.