Is Roku Driving the Final Nail in the Coffin of Traditional TV? (nerds.xyz)
- Reference: 0179052678
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/09/06/1939254/is-roku-driving-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-traditional-tv
- Source link: https://nerds.xyz/2025/09/traditional-tv-fading-roku/
"For the third month in a row, people in the United States spent more time streaming on Roku-powered devices than they did watching traditional broadcast television."
> Nielsen's latest data shows Roku-powered devices accounted for 21.4 percent of all TV viewing in July. Broadcast came in at 18.4 percent. That gap may not seem huge, but it marks a steady trend from May and June where streaming also came out ahead. Roku says its share of TV viewing is up 14 percent year-over-year, which suggests people are not just trying streaming, they're sticking with it...
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> Roku powers streaming on smart TVs and devices in over half of internet-enabled U.S. households. By its own numbers, it sells more TV units than the next two operating systems combined. It's a reminder that Roku has positioned itself as more than just a box or an app. It clearly wants to be the place where television happens.
Thanks to Slashdot reader [2]BrianFagioli for sharing the news.
[1] https://nerds.xyz/2025/09/traditional-tv-fading-roku/
[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~BrianFagioli
Easier to get a good signal (Score:3)
Even though I live in suburban Houston, where there are hundreds of OTA channels available, there are often issues with broadcast quality. Some of the antenna farms are 50 miles away. With streaming (Roku or otherwise) it's possible to get good signal quality almost all of the time.
I like my Rokus (Score:2)
I just wish that the streaming services did better at making good Roku apps for their services.
They often seem clumsy or buggy, as if the Roku version is an afterthought.
Unskippable ads with make in unwatchable (Score:2)
21.5% of users using a Roku is going to be a big issue if you want to watch ad-free content. Advertisers will be trying their damnedest to make sure the ads they buy on the Roku platform are unskippable.
I watch on Youtube. There will probably come a day where you have to log in and use some proprietary browser extention which does not allow you to skip ads.
The enshitification will continue until people have had enough. It's hard to predict when this will happen, but given things get more enshittified every
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Another reason to host your own server and play it through a Roku
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Yes, but [1]Roku patent invents a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV [arstechnica.com].
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/hdmi-customized-ad-insertion-patent-would-show-rokus-ads-atop-non-roku-video/
No It Is Not (Score:2)
First and foremost, the article leaves out the other 60% of the market? Who owns how much of that?
Roku is puny with just slightly more than broadcast TV. Who the fuck watches broadcast TV in 2025? Apparently barely fewer than those that watch Roku.
Roku pulled a very smart move by striking a deal with HiSense and others to embed Roku in their cheap smart TVs. This means that Roku player has an outsized installed base. Their viewership is expected to be high. It should be significantly higher than it is. Some
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I watch broadcast tv. Why not?
I turn on my tv. There it is. No cost. No complications. No internet required.
I bought a TV in May. It has AppleTV built in. No idea if it has Roku built in, but there isn't a button for it on the remote like there is for AppleTV.
Tradition TV suicided with ads, Roku to follow (Score:2)
Traditional TV programming became unwatchable with 15+ minutes of max volume ads per hour of programming. People started leaving that shitshow even before real alternative materialized. Roku is following that trajectory.
Skimpy (Score:2)
This article doesn't have any links, so...
1) There is no definition of "broadcast TV".
2) Do they include cable TV as "broadcast"?
3) And what portion of that is DVR?
4) And what is the other 39.8%?
I do have a Roku, but rarely use it. I refuse to watch anything with commercials, and only occasionally subscribe to some higher-level streaming. Prime Video is now riddled with commercials unless you pay even more, so that is out. I mostly just use it to stream local stuff.
Most of my TV watching is TiVo + Cable
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> "I refuse to watch anything with commercials"
Reply-to-self for clarification: I refuse to watch anything with commercials or other content (warnings, public service crap, intros, trailers, sponsor junk, etc) that I cannot block, skip, or fast-forward through.
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This *advert* is not a scientific paper up for peer review.
OTA broadcasts quit in 2004 (Score:2)
OTA broadcasts quit in 2004 here. The broadcast stations never made good on their promise of remodeling the translator network. I can't really blame them, it costs money to run translator stations and they can make money by charging cable and satellite companies to carry their "valuable" programming.
Except that the programming isn't valuable. If it's worth watching at all it's only worth it if it's free. I am not paying to watch commercials. Especially since the commercials are for Spokane businesses and th
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> I've occasionally wondered it the broadcast stations are slowly reducing power to save money and to shift people to cable/satellite so they can make more money there.
Doubtful. First, cable companies are exempt from must carry rules for low power stations. And even if they "must carry", the market in which they must do so is restricted to the OTA coverage area. So if the signal doesn't make it to a local cable head end with a sufficient S/N ratio, they don't have to put it on the line. There are a number of low power "Jesus channels" which are listed on wider area OTA TV guide web pages. But they are not on cable.
> A 1 milliwatt signal with a directional antenna straight into a receiver dish to feed the cable network.
The FCC (and must carry legislation) isn't going to fall
Roku closed OS and lagging processors (Score:2)
All these cheap streamers are lagging for the amount of memory used and ads they are trying to serve. You add a closed Roku OS to that mix and it is all down hill from day one.
Blogger is Roku fanboi, got it (Score:2)
We've got a Roku in our spare room, but nowadays it mainly gets used to access our Jellyfin server or as an AirPlay client - both of which it does reasonably well. But the Roku experience itself seems to be going downhill.
In any case, Roku didn't start this trend; as with many many other services, it's simply taking advantage of it.
Pre-enshittification Roku (Score:2)
I have an ancient Roku 2 and I use it very occasionally to watch YouTube. I don't subscribe to any streaming services, so it's no use for that. And some services (such as Amazon Prime) are no longer even compatible with the Roku 2.
Honestly, I probably watch my TV for less than an hour a week. Most of my video consumption is on my computer, where I can block ads. And I'll never upgrade my Roku because I don't want ads (Roku 2 is too old to have ads, thankfully!)
Nope! (Score:3)
Cable TV will survive until the boomers and Gen X die off. I don't know anyone under 50 with a cable subscription anymore but I have family friends over 50 and most do have cable or satellite but not much streaming. It's definitely a generational thing.
Not here (Score:1)
No Roku here!
My (new) TV is Google TV powered.
My streaming box is an AppleTV.
I do have a OTA antenna that I just got, and I'm amazed at how many channels it pulls in! A lot more than the cheap flat hang on the wall style that I had before.
As for traditional tv...I don't think Roku or anyone else killed it. I think it committed suicide by refusing to get with the times and by insisting on doing business the way it always did.
People want to watch when they want to watch, and they don't want to watch all those
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I don't get why people insist on consuming the "Evil Media's Content" but think they shouldn't pay for it. Why not just not watch it because "Evil Media". By watching it, you only show that you are cheap. You aren't a pirate. You are just a hypocrite.
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Hypocrisy is all it is.
Too good to PAY for content. Not too good to forego watching content.
Funny how that works.
Personally? I don't mind paying for content. I do mind commercials. Humanity cannot comprehend my disdain for advertising. That said, advertising would not be nearly as bad if it were not just so fucking stupid!! I understand that it is aimed toward the lowest common denominator. I also understand why it is so. I wish there was some fee I could pay that could somehow disconnect me from audio/vid
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Both are Linux devices and it is the year of the Linux Powered TV Desktop
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Personally, I could not care less what OS my assorted various devices run on. I have to think that the overwhelming majority of people don't either.
What they care about is price and features....actual features, not stuff like OS.