Roku CEO Anthony Wood said the connected TV player sees a very large potential market segment for its low-cost $2.99 per month ad-free Howdy SVOD service, which is looking to be more attractive than some onlookers may have initially expected.
Wood shared comments around Howdy last week during Roku’s first quarter 2026 earnings call and on the heels of Antenna releasing estimates that Howdy had surpassed 1 million subscribers in just eight months since its August launch.
Analysts on the call questioned Roku leaders about potential for the service while noting the Antenna data and expressing the view that it’s clear Howdy is much bigger than most Wall Street analysts had anticipated.
While Wood declined to confirm Antenna’s subscriber estimates for Howdy, he did say the SVOD is “doing extremely well.”
It’s not as large as The Roku Channel (aff) – which is Roku’s main owned-and-operated streaming service that’s the No. 2 app on the company’s platform, and as Wood acknowledged, the opposite of Howdy in that its primarily linear streaming and a fully free ad-supported model.
As we’ve written before, Howdy is a somewhat unique offering and proposition in the broader market. With Howdy, Wood said Roku is “going after a segment of the market that’s not currently served” in the sense of an inexpensive, ad-free and on-demand entertainment streaming service.
Wood said that “streaming services have been raising their prices” and “they've been increasing their ad loads.”
“So a low-cost, affordable streaming service is something that didn't really exist in the market, so that's a segment of the market we're going after,” he continued noting it’s the part of the market Roku intends to stay in. “And I think it's a very large segment.”
Traction for Howdy, which was initially only available via the Roku platform through Premium Subscriptions on The Roku Channel (aff), comes as Roku…