In the past, Roku has often positioned itself more in the advertising industry and sees itself less as a hardware supplier. That’s no surprise given the company’s revenue streams. Quite a bit of money is involved because the buttons on the remotes are assigned shortcuts to streaming providers. Depending on the region, providers such as Apple, Netflix, Spotify or Disney pay for this. But in the end Roku . was able to sell fewer media players than planned.

This reduces revenue. However, as Roku argues, it’s not so much lost revenue from the actual selling prices of the devices that cloud the balance. Rather, you will now receive less money as part of your streaming provider agreements. In 2019, Roku collected about $1 for every remote sold by the partners who put their shortcuts there. Roku puts four hotkeys on each remote, so Roku can only receive $4 per device sold from its partners. That’s assuming costs haven’t gone up since then, which is possible.

Ultimately, however, it may also be the case that streaming providers, especially Netflix, are becoming more cautious about this type of spending. After all, competition in the fragmented streaming business is only increasing. Apparently, not only is it worth it for Roku to sell space on its remotes, the streaming providers appreciate the presence of being there for customers. I’m glad I have an Apple TV 4K – there are no keyboard shortcuts.

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