SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — If Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is the star of the Internet video-streaming phenomenon, then Roku CEO Anthony Wood is the best supporting actor. Both men play pivotal roles in popularizing technologies that are shaking up the entertainment and broadband industries. While Hastings gets marquee billing for building an Internet video service with 48 million worldwide subscribers, Wood has quietly worked behind the scenes making Roku streaming devices that make it easier and more enjoyable to watch Netflix’s vast library of movies and TV shows. In the late 1990s, he invented one of the first digital video recorders and started ReplayTV — a company upstaged by fellow DVR pioneer TiVo Inc. Roku, based in Saratoga, California, appears to be to doing so well that the privately held company is viewed as a prime candidate to go public during the next year. Since its first streaming box debuted six years, Roku has sold more than 8 million devices used for streaming Internet video to the TV —still the biggest and most-watched screen in the house. Roku’s early success prompted Apple Inc. to start treating its own video-streaming player as something more than a “hobby,” as its late CEO Steve Jobs once dismissively described the device. About 20 million Apple TV streaming devices have been sold, according to current CEO Tim Cook, and the business generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue. About 35 percent of U.S. households now have TVs connected to the Internet, according to the research firm NPD. Wood shared his views on the convergence of Internet video and television in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Source: www.sfgate.com
Roku’s early success prompted Apple Inc. to start treating its own video-streaming player as something more than a “hobby,” as its late CEO Steve Jobs once dismissively described the device. About 20 million Apple TV streaming devices have been sold, according to current CEO Tim Cook, and the business generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue.