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Businesses Television

Roku Laying Off 10% of Employees, Will Take up to $65 Million Charge To Remove Streaming Content (variety.com) 43

Posted by msmash from the tough-days-ahead dept.
Roku will cut more than 300 staffers -- laying off 10% of its workforce -- as the streaming-platform company continues its battle to control costs. From a report: In addition, Roku will remove certain licensed and owned content from its platform as part of a "strategic review of its content portfolio," resulting in an impairment charge of up to $65 million in the current quarter, the company disclosed in an SEC filing Wednesday. Other cost-cutting measures Roku outlined are consolidating office space and reducing outside services expenses.

The goal is to reduce year-over-year operating expense growth rate, the company said. The layoffs represent Roku's third round of job cuts in less than a year, after it pink-slipped 200 staffers in November 2022 and another 200 in March 2023. As of the end of 2022, Roku had approximately 3,600 full-time employees. The company, in addition to the layoffs, said it also plans to cut back on new hires.
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Roku Laying Off 10% of Employees, Will Take up to $65 Million Charge To Remove Streaming Content More

Roku Laying Off 10% of Employees, Will Take up to $65 Million Charge To Remove Streaming Content

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  • Not a streaming company (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jobslave ( 6255040 ) on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:08PM (#63828162)

    I know they have tried to be a streaming company, but they are a hardware company and only a hardware company. They cannot possibly compete with any of the major streaming companies who use their hardware to stream their content. They make the tires and wheels, not the car and need to be happy with that or they will go out of business. The "we must grow each quarter/year" mentality is just never going to be sustainable.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      Was the Roku content exclusive to people with Roku hardware or something anyone could stream?

      • Anybody can sign up for a Roku account to stream The Roku Channel. You don't need their hardware to do so, any web browser will suffice.

      • There was a Roku Channel that made it worth buying the device. It was "free" after purchase, but when you figure you can pay $25 and have the Roku channel for life, then realize even the cheap streaming services were making bank in comparison, well, you get the picture.

        I'm not a fan of Roku devices, and while the Roku channel is surprisingly good for being bolted onto the hardware purchase, it's really not awesome in the grand scheme of things. I knew they had to be in trouble when I turned on my Nvidia S

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by kalpol ( 714519 )
      They're publicly traded, they have to grow. They aren't in a good spot, their hardware was awesome back in the day (and in my mind still beats a Fire stick) but it's almost commoditzed now. No one sells just hardware, unless you decide that's what you do and just diversity into lots of types of hardware. I don't expect them to last, or things will change so much I'll stop using my Roku 3 finally and switch over to Kodi permanently.

      • Re:Not a streaming company (Score:4, Informative)

        by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:44PM (#63828236)

        their hardware was awesome back in the day (and in my mind still beats a Fire stick) but it's almost commoditzed now

        I have a TCL-branded smart TV that uses the Roku platform. For a smart TV, the interface is interface is pretty usable and the ads aren't that annoying. Just a three-wide grid system of channels and inputs, and an ad to the right. Plus I can remove the default streaming platforms and add only the ones I want, and place them in any order.

        I'd stick with Roku OS if we were looking for a new SmartTV. But damned if I ever checked out their Roku channel.

        • I have a 55" TCL Roku tv that failed to boot after a power outage.
          Now with this change, I might not even pay to have it reparied (since a similar new tv is $300).

    • I'm not sure if they still do this, but the beginning and end of my being a Roku customer was when I bought one of their streaming devices and it required a credit card number being put on file to set up an account. I returned it. It was probably just as well, as I didn't really want to have to deal with setting up Plex just to do the same thing that Kodi does for free.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by lsllll ( 830002 )

      They make the tires and wheels, not the car and need to be happy with that or they will go out of business.

      How about they make a tire than can drive off-road as well? The Roku devices are tied down so tight that most users (some will) can't install things that may help them. This, of course, was by design, because they wanted a robust device. Maybe they've changed this attitude in later devices, but a device I bought a couple of years ago still couldn't install anything not on Roku's menu. You can't make tires that are good only on the race track and then wonder why your sales are down.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by steveg ( 55825 )

        They had a "secret" menu that allowed your to install all kinds of free third party channels, mostly for free.

        About a year ago, they scuttled that private marketplace, and anything that had been installed from it was deleted from your device.

    • They released the Weird Al movie.

      I guess you can say the same of Apple - they are a hardware company that uses streaming to sell more hardware.

    • Since merging with DataXu in 2019, Roku has been an advertising company. Hardware is just a means to an end. There is not enough profit in cheap hardware alone.

      Roku is an OTT advertising company.

    • Go after a niche and you can make good money. There's several anime streaming services that started out from basically nothing. Crunchyroll rather famously got it's start as pirates before going legit. There's a horror themed service that comes to mind, among others.

      Yeah, they can't compete with Netflix and Hulu out the door, but there's plenty of ways to carve a niche and build it into something. But I'm guessing they didn't do that. I'm guessing they went whole hog and blew a bunch of cash trying to t
    • This is capitalism though. The mistake is streaming - it's a really unstable and unpredictable market. Roku doesn't have the size/power to dominate it and start sweeping up smaller companies. I agree though, they could concentrate on making better hardware, but people don't buy new streaming hardware every year or two. And they don't pay more than $99 for a streaming box for them most part.

  • New hires? (Score:3)

    by bagofbeans ( 567926 ) on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:14PM (#63828172)

    The company, in addition to the layoffs, said it also plans to cut back on new hires.

    Errr... is that unusual?

    • The company, in addition to the layoffs, said it also plans to cut back on new hires.

      Errr... is that unusual?

      Perhaps it's unusual to us because in the past we've found companies shift a payroll burden to the other side of the books by replacing employees with consultants. So a firing event is followed by a hiring event for 'select' candidates.

      Hopefully they aren't dropping an inadvertent hint here as to just how bad the corporate financial situation is. Wonder if they're even hiring consultants...

    • The company, in addition to the layoffs, said it also plans to cut back on new hires.

      Errr... is that unusual?

      Sometime companies lay off more expensive (older) people, and hire less expensive (younger) people. I once heard a manager euphemistically call it "greening the workforce" -- which now makes it sound like an environmental thing. Pretty sure this kind of thing is age discrimination, if you can prove it... Also not sure it's always a good ROI.

      • At the point where a company is resorting to schemes like "greening the workforce" to improve profitability, I doubt they're thinking long term at all. So ROI isn't really a concern. It's likely the higher ups are simply trying to keep it afloat long enough for a buyout or as an extra resume bullet point to use during the job search they're currently engaged in.

        • At the point where a company is resorting to schemes like "greening the workforce" to improve profitability, I doubt they're thinking long term at all. So ROI isn't really a concern. It's likely the higher ups are simply trying to keep it afloat long enough for a buyout or as an extra resume bullet point to use during the job search they're currently engaged in.

          Sure, though this company is (currently) like the 7th largest defense contractor in the world ...

    • "is that unusual?"

      For a functioning workforce, yes. You must maintain a certain amount of progression from new hires to junior experience to senior experience so that you can properly staff your projects. To get senior workers you have start with junior workers. In addition, it is inefficient to assign senior workers to junior tasks and they are likely to be dissatisfied with such assignments.

      If you generate a bubble in your employee development you will eventually have a staffing problem.

    • so yeah. Ideally this should be them laying of people in their faltering streaming division to make way for other forms of revenue. As others have pointed out they're publicly traded. The expectation is that they'll have unlimited exponential growth and if they don't a company is normally shut down and sold off for scrape.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by doug141 ( 863552 )

      It needs to be said - the alternative should not be simply assumed. Some companies follow a business model of regularly firing the bottom x percent, and hiring to replace them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by teg ( 97890 )

      The company, in addition to the layoffs, said it also plans to cut back on new hires.

      Errr... is that unusual?

      Depends. A company could easily need more manpower in one part of the company, and less in another. Hypothetically, Roku could use more people to work on the hardware/OS and fewer people to work on their streaming - and the skillsets and locations might not make internal reallocation possible.

  • Weird (Score:5, Informative)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:14PM (#63828174) Homepage Journal

    The only thing I ever watched on Roku's own streaming was "Weird," the biography of Weird Al. They seemed to be taking the Amazon approach of putting money into a few big productions and then getting a ton of cheap content plus a bunch of stuff that is essentially promotions for subscription services.

    So thanks for "Weird." I never noticed anything else of any interest, and there wasn't enough big stuff to get me to look again.

    • I don't have any Roku hardware and didn't feel like installing yet another streaming app, so I just snagged a copy from the high seas. Still haven't actually gotten around to watching it though. Not sure if I can get past that Harry Potter is playing Weird Al.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I don't have any Roku hardware and didn't feel like installing yet another streaming app, so I just snagged a copy from the high seas. Still haven't actually gotten around to watching it though. Not sure if I can get past that Harry Potter is playing Weird Al.

        Arrow Video is releasing Weird on physical media with an approximate release date in December.

        If you want to encourage the production of such content acquiring it legally is the only way. As well as encouraging more content to be put on physical media

  • Is currently on Roku Channel.
  • I've seen this over and over again.
    They didn't make the right technical decisions, they didn't listen to their engineers, and it all piled up in the form of massive expenses.
    How does bad management deal with expenses? Cost-cutting short cuts of course!

  • Hardware supplier and content broker (Score:3)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @02:30PM (#63828322)
    I have 4 Roku's scattered around the house. Most were bought on-sale and it's hard to imagine that Roku made any significant profit on the sales. We don't have any use for Roku's programming, getting all of our content from Prime, Youtube TV, Netflix and Hulu. Unless Roku gets a kickback from those services for brokering them, I can't see any profit stream from a customer like us.
    • They also develop those apps that run on the platform, or provide the software development kit so other companies can. They host the servers that provide those apps and allow them to access the content providers. They probably get paid by those companies for those services, not just "kickbacks".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      I can only assume they are harvesting your usage data and selling it to the highest bidder.

  • I have a couple Roku devices and they're fine. But I also don't see where their future goes.

    Right now, people don't demand a lot out of "streaming sticks" (or Smart TVs). Many are just front-ends for Netflix or Disney+. But over time their capability should be expected to grow. And as those capabilities/expectations increase, the advantages will increase for companies that already have OS ecosystems/experience.

    Or, if people remain satisfied with "streaming stick" type functionality - then their differen

  • There are no flaws in this plan.
  • Clearly, Americans are force fed ads since Day 1, but why pay for them? I would pay for nyt, roku, wapo, etc, if, like phys.org, they offer an ad-free experience. But they don't.

    • And like that, local channels on cable systems are the reason millions abandon cable video services in favor of an antenna...

      Or something like that.

  • Roku had a huge first-to-market* competitive advantage and it looks like it's finally beginning to run out. Everyone I know that develops for Roku says it's the worst platform, with its own proprietary scripting language you're forced to use. Because of this, streaming companies need to fund Roku development at a much higher cost than other platforms, and thus Roku apps are buggy and typically lag in versions. Meantime Roku has been sacrificing more and more of their UX to advertising, which works directly

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