Roku finds voice with Amazon Alexa
Details
Editor
| 06 March 2019

In a move that shows where the battleground for online video now is, Roku has announced that its products are now compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices.

Available through the new Roku skill facility, Roku streaming player and Roku TV owners in the US can now control their Roku devices using Alexa. Roku users with Alexa-enabled devices – including Amazon Echo, Echo Show, Echo Dot, Echo Spot and Echo Plus – can now pause a show, launch a streaming channel and search for entertainment by voice command. Additionally, Roku TV users can turn on the TV, change the volume, mute the TV, switch inputs and change channels if there is an OTA antenna connected.

“Consumers often have multiple voice ecosystems in their homes. By allowing our customers to choose Alexa, in addition to Roku voice search and controls, and other popular voice assistants; we are strengthening the value Roku offers as a neutral platform in home entertainment,” said Ilya Asnis, senior vice president of Roku OS at Roku. “Roku customers can get to the entertainment they love faster so they can enjoy more of it.”

In January 2019, Roku announced a series of new products and deals at CES 2019 and also disclosed preliminary Q4 2018 data showing that by the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, active accounts topped 27 million, up roughly 40% year-over-year while streaming hours were an estimated 7.3 billion hours, up about 68% year-over-year. This brought full-year 2018 streaming hours to about 24 billion, up about 61% from 2017.

The Roku OS offers access to 500,000+ movies and TV episodes via thousands of free or paid channels. The Roku Channel offers 10,000+ free ad-supported movies and TV episodes and currently an update is rolling out to The Roku Channel where customers can browse, trial and subscribe to Premium Subscriptions from popular services such as Epix, Showtime and Starz.