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Fox to buy Roku

wsj.com

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Re: Fox to buy Roku

#391

Post by Postosuchus »

andrewla wrote: post #4

As a long-time[1] customer of Roku I am tentatively extremely pessimistic. I have always been unhappy with Roku's decision to get involved in streaming content at all, because it could potentially cut into their service-agnostic architecture. Bad enough in my mind that they had in-platform ads instead of just charging for hardware, but way worse when they are actively competing with streaming services. And now it loo…

You might have missed the memo, but Roku's main business has been advertising for quite a while. It is just shrouded in streaming and platforms. But it is advertising nevertheless.

Being a platform, Roku benefits from advertising 3 ways - by running its own ads in some apps and on home screen; by exercising carriage rights on 3p apps that show ads (getting a cut as a platform); and by building and selling audiences for targeting.

For all I know, Fox has zero interest in platforms or technology. But they are fairly sophisticated when it comes to adtech and this is purely an adtech play.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#392

Post by [deleted] »

whatthesmack wrote: post #355
skilning wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There's no plurality on "the right" that holds the perspectives you're attributing to them. What you've stated is the pristine modern example of propaganda and is exactly why there is no healing.

[deleted]

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#393

Post by hightrix »

baggachipz wrote: post #6

Time for the 'Fox News' button on the Roku remote. Truth Social tweets on your screensaver.

More like, time for Apple TV boxes to replace Roku boxes. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but had no good reason.

Now there is a good reason.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#394

Post by hightrix »

carlosjobim wrote: post #239
dylan604 wrote: post #34

Ugh, Fox. I recently made the decision to not spend $10.99/month for their FoxOne app to stream World Cup matches. I decided to watch the Telemundo broadcasts instead, even though I don’t speak Spanish, just to not give Fox my money. If I were Roku user, this would definitely cause me to quit being a Roku user. I doubt I’d be the only one, but I also do not believe it will be enough total to be noticeable.

Do you think people will throw away their perfectly functioning devices because of politics?

Yes. I’ve been wanting to for a while. This is the final push to swap my streaming boxes.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#395

Post by solumunus »

beastman82 wrote: post #288
pier25 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the Apple TV is the best streaming box out there It definitely is. IMO the only advantage of the Nvidia Shield is better HDMI audio passthrough but it has so many other issues. And with more recent versions of the Plex client for tvOS the lack of audio passthrough is much less of an issue than it used to be (PCM conversion used to introduce sync issues). Also the Plex app for Android TV has been getting con…

what are the shield issues? I've had 2 of them for 10 years and I haven't noticed anything.

I’ve had one for maybe 4 and mine has always been pretty buggy and unreliable. Restarts aren’t uncommon.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#396

Post by Affric »

freeAgent wrote: post #186
andrewla wrote: post #4

As a long-time[1] customer of Roku I am tentatively extremely pessimistic. I have always been unhappy with Roku's decision to get involved in streaming content at all, because it could potentially cut into their service-agnostic architecture. Bad enough in my mind that they had in-platform ads instead of just charging for hardware, but way worse when they are actively competing with streaming services. And now it loo…

Ironically, I think the Apple TV is the best streaming box out there. Of course, Apple is both the manufacturer and a streamer in their own right. And they definitely privilege their own store and streaming over other services. However, everything else already sucks so much with UIs chock full of ads that Apple wins anyway. It’s awful.

Bingo.

Again Apple's offering is the worst apart from every other one on the market.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#397

Post by phantomathkg »

thayne wrote: post #125
andrewla wrote: post #4

As a long-time[1] customer of Roku I am tentatively extremely pessimistic. I have always been unhappy with Roku's decision to get involved in streaming content at all, because it could potentially cut into their service-agnostic architecture. Bad enough in my mind that they had in-platform ads instead of just charging for hardware, but way worse when they are actively competing with streaming services. And now it loo…

Are there any alternatives that are independent of streaming services?

The only decent device out there will be Nvidia Shield.

As a Google certified Android TV, this means it will do Widevine L1 DRM decoding, give you the 4K streaming quality.

For TV I used to recommend Sony, but now they sold the whole business to China TCL. Will have to wait and see if TCL will enshittify it.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#398

Post by phantomathkg »

glenstein wrote: post #176
thayne wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any alternatives that are independent of streaming services?

Recently got a Google Smart TV for the first time, instead of Roku, and I hate it so much. Roku interestingly I think folded in ads in the most non-obtrusive way (except for the full screen ads which I think were quickly abandoned). But Google Smart TV is a completely intentional bid for sticky integration that fosters Google dependence (google login, google telemetry tracking what you watch inside of other apps, oth…

Genuine ask.

Roku do Automatic Content Recognition, why do you feel they are non-evil?

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#399

Post by xp84 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #381
xp84 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could come back and ask you how they perform after a couple more years of "software updates" from the app providers. Considering, too, that they will also be vibe-coding them from here on out. IDK about the specs on yours, but even things like bloated sizes of apps themselves on disk can become a problem. What happens when the OS and the apps inevitably go up in size such that the 8GB or whatever TCL has dec…

I have a 10 year old 4k Roku TV that works a good as new. The Roku app API is severely limited. The upside of that is that it discourages webdev bloat.

Interesting. Honestly I had never considered that angle. Given that they really ought not to need anything but simple navigation of lists and grids to build a streaming app that is actually usable and fast, not whatever the Youtube App (330MB) and Netflix (183MB) are wasting my phone's space on... now I'm wondering if this forced parsimony imposed on the developers could be a reason to give Roku a try again. I admit it's been over a decade since I used a Roku regularly.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#400

Post by Schiendelman »

adamrezich wrote: post #327
Schiendelman wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, that would mean no Apple TV, no Fire TV stick... I suspect that would have downsides for the market.

There's a huge difference between making your own streaming box that people have to buy in order to use, and buying the company that makes the streaming box built into basically every new TV.

"Built into" - are you talking about them shipping with the app? What's the difference between that and the Apple TV, Prime Video, Netflix apps built into those TVs?
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