Anthony Wood, CEO, Roku
Speaking at Streaming Media West this morning, Anthony Wood (pictured), CEO of Roku, said to release a software development kit (SDK) that will let other video content providers like Amazon, YouTube, Hulu, etc, to add a video channel alongside Netflix’s.
Currently, the Netflix Player sells for $99, plus a $9 a month subscription to the Netflix service for an unlimited online access to its 15,000 videos.
“With the SDK, any online video service provider will be able to add a channel alongside the Netflix channel. They’ll also be able to create their own user interface. And it’s free [Roku will not charge the online video provider for a channel on the box]“, confirmed Wood to me.
In our conversation after his keynote (I’ll have a video up soon of our talk), Wood would not confirmed the release date for the SDK. However, the Roku CEO admitted to changing the name of his Netflix Player to reflect the variety of video service provider channels that will be available on the box.
But the hardware platform will stay the same, while Roku seamlessly updates the embedded software. A month ago, Roku updated remotely the Netflix Player software improving its stability and the image quality. In average, the box was crashing every 500 hours. Now it just won’t, said Wood!
“The hardware still have a lot of headroom, like in memory for example. We also didn’t activate the HD feature yet [a feature that Roku may charge for by the way]“, added Wood.
Regarding the current Netflix Player, Wood has no intent in changing the way his company sells the box – direct, through Roku’s web site – in order to keep the price low and margins as high as possible. However, Roku might add additional revenue streams, beyond just selling the hardware, with additional software plug-ins/widgets for the player and through advertising partnerships
[...] plugins – Roku is offering a free software development kit to any online video content provider who wishes to add a channel of content alongside the Netflix [...]
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What is the best media player?
Roku is really not a bad choice. I like it. It’s cheap and if the company delivers on opening up to more content sources including your own (audio, video…), it would definitely be a killer box.
It is 9-26-09 and the only extra content they added was a pay for sports channel. I am wanting to buy new computer to stream to older tvs with converter boxes and sell my Roku due to the fact there are only three channels on it. I like to stream music and Netflix and want the freedome to pick the sites I want to stream. Roku has had plenty of time to let others come on board but I think they are positioning it to be an online cable company. I was looking at HP systems but their tech support in India is lacking to be polite. I wanted to know how to interface new computer technology with tvs with converter boxes and speakers in other rooms. If the Roku can talk directly to my tvs then why can’t my new PC?
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