Roku CEO Talks About Apple TV+ Going Cross-Platform

Apple yesterday shared plans to bring its Apple TV app to multiple smart TVs and third-party set-top boxes, including the Amazon Fire TV and Roku. The TV app will house ‌Apple TV‌+, Apple's upcoming streaming service for its original content when it launches later this year.

Following Apple's announcement, Roku CEO Anthony Wood spoke to CNBC about Apple's decision to expand access to the TV app, expressing excitement that the content will be available on Roku devices.


Wood believes that Apple is "well-positioned" to be successful in the TV streaming market, despite its competitiveness, due to the company's large user base.

There were not a lot of details announced, but I think they're well-positioned to be successful. They've got a lot of experience with subscription services, they're investing a lot of money in content, and they've got a great brand and lots of loyal customers.

Wood went on to say that while Apple is counting on its iOS and macOS devices to "jumpstart" ‌Apple TV‌+, the importance of smart TVs should not be ignored.

When you have a TV streaming service, you know, obviously they're counting on jumpstarting that with all of their iPhone and iPad and Mac customers, but actually, smart TVs are the way that most streaming services - long form streaming services - are viewed by customers. That's where they spend most of their hours.

Roku, says Wood, is the leading streaming TV platform, and if Apple wants to be successful, Apple needs to be on Roku and other similar platforms.

For any kind of service like that to be successful, you want to be on the leading streaming TV platforms and Roku is the leading streaming TV platform. We're the leading distributor of streaming content in the U.S.

According to Wood, there are no real negatives to Apple entering the streaming market for Roku because Roku supports all streaming services to offer its customers choice. Roku isn't betting on any one company to come out ahead in the streaming market because Roku "works with everyone" and benefits from a large amount of content being available.

‌Apple TV‌+ will launch in the fall, but ahead of its debut, the newly revamped TV app will become available in May. Apple plans to bring the TV app to multiple third-party platforms, starting with Samsung Smart TVs. Later in the year, it will expand to Amazon Fire TV devices, Roku devices, and smart TVs from Sony, LG, and Vizio.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tag: Roku
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

Braderunner Avatar
75 months ago
I still can't get over what a waste of time that event was. We still know no details about Apple's tv service. Except the name!
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iMerik Avatar
75 months ago
Holy crap, why did I decide to read the comments? Roku adding support for Apples services is a good thing for Roku owners and could be good for Apple to expand its reach. No need to be so negative.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Scottsoapbox Avatar
75 months ago
This guy is so low energy for a CEO.
Because high energy is the mark of a good CEO - wait that's fitness instructors. :rolleyes:
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WannaGoMac Avatar
75 months ago
With so many video streaming services all demanding subscriptions it's no wonder torrents are becoming more popular again unfortunately.

Shame video wouldn't follow the music model of multiple audio streaming companies able to provide about the same content.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BJMRamage Avatar
75 months ago
I still can't get over what a waste of time that event was. We still know no details about Apple's tv service. Except the name!
but did you see all those celebrities? they would;dn't just get on stage for cheers or money, right?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
smulji Avatar
75 months ago
"Wood believes that Apple is "well-positioned" to be successful in the TV streaming market, despite its competitiveness, due to the company's large user base.

'There were not a lot of details announced, but I think they're well-positioned to be successful. They've got a lot of experience with subscription services, they're investing a lot of money in content, and they've got a great brand and lots of loyal customers
.'"

I think Wood and Apple and a lot of others are greatly over-estimating the loyalty of longtime customers. I have been using Apple devices since 1981, which is more years than a large percentage of MacRumors members have been alive. I like my Apple devices, but I think Apple services blow big chunks. And judging by the posts I've read in many forums in the past few years, including this one, there are a lot of us so-called loyal Apple customers who hate Apple services but like Apple hardware. I have never liked any of Apple's services, and other than an occasional free trial have never used them long enough to pay a subscription. From what I saw yesterday, Apple just piddled all over itself with their services event. Apple was not prepared to make half of them available yet, nor did they give many details, and that suggests to me they are very clueless and ill prepared for those services. The two services that were made available both are extremely underwhelming. Financial experts are saying  Card is nothing special as has already been done by many companies like Amazon. Apple made no attempt to even compete in rewards with other companies. And from what I've seen trying to use the  New+ service it truly blows chunks. Why mix magazines in with news articles? Why use a clunky, crappy interface. What did they do with News Stand. It would have been a better interface than displaying scanned images of magazines like Smithsonian which have zero text formatting options, and magazines like National Geographic which does have a very few text formatting options but still looks bad in the News app interface. Meh... There is no way in hell I will pay for any of their services as long as they suck that bad. I will keep buying Apple devices as long as I can afford to, I have a new iPhone XR arriving today, but their services are over priced and not competitive enough to make me spend a single penny on any of them.
Once upon a time those same financial experts said Apple should not have entered brick-and-mortal retail and now they are the most profitable retailer (on a per square foot basis) globally. Those same financial experts also said the iPod would fail when it was first announced because Apple was late to the digital music segment and was proprietary. They also said iPhone would fail because it had no hardware keyboard and they offered nothing compelling over Blackberry & Nokia. Need I go on?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)