Roku Predictions For 2018

Antenna’s
Will 2018 be the year that antenna’s are finally available on Roku’s? Roku has a number of products on the international market that utilize antennas. Unfortunately, in the US, Roku’s boxes do not feature a way to attach an antenna, though there are a number of ways to utilize them via apps. Roku has the technology to do this already and

should use it on at least its highest end products.

War On Piracy
Roku spent the last part of 2017 taking down private channels that featured links to copyrighted content such as major studio movies and TV shows. The sources, like Channel Pear and XTV had gained large followings in the streaming community but were operating in violation of Roku’s standards. XTV, Channel Pear and others like them were removed and banished from the Roku ecosystem even via installation via websites. There will be other programs popping up over the next year but Roku will have its eyes peeled for this. The company can not afford to be associated with piracy and will continue to shut down free and paid piracy workarounds on its platform.

New Interface
It has been years since Roku changed up its interface substantially. Since its major upgrade with the Roku 3 the Roku interface has remained essentially the same aside from a few new homepage features. But the 9 app grid has remained in place as has the app store and basic controls. When it first dropped the interface was a fresh new take on how to present streaming apps. Since then Amazon has released two interfaces for the Fire TV, Apple introduced a much more user-friendly Apple TV and Android TV came on the scene. It’s time for a refresh that adds new features such as folders or a way to organize apps other than stacking them.

New Catagories
Roku has 29 different channel categories. Yet there is not one to address the exploding market of Live TV services. Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PS Vue, Hulu Live, YouTube TV (currently Not Offered), Philo, Fubo, Century Link Stream and others that are sure to roll out over the next year or so are completely different from something like Economist Films,

yet they sit in the same pile. Roku could make things more simple for the user by creating a category like Cable Replacement services or Live Subscriptions etc. Can Roku solidify or reorganize things further?

Restriction of Developer channels
One way to cut back on Piracy channels on Roku would be to limit the number of people who can access a developer channel or unaffiliated private channel. Developer channels serve an important purpose as they can allow those building channels to try them out with live audiences ahead of submitting them to the app store. It would not be at all surprising if Roku were to have to approve of any developer or private channel before it could be distributed even without it appearing in the app store.

Update Voice Control
At the moment Roku’s voice actions have one sole purpose to allow users to search for content and open apps. At the most basic level, this is all that one really needs, because unlike other devices Roku is not trying to be a multi-purpose hub. But adding the ability to control playback “start Movie over” “replay one minute Back” or even use it to search within apps would be great upgrades.

New Partners For Roku TV
Roku is a fast-growing smart TV platform. We can only assume that more and more manufacturers not named Lg or Samsung will join the family both in the US and internationally. TV manufacturers need to concentrate on Tuners, Picture, and other hardware issues, not software. Want to know who will be the next partner. Just take a look at the TV’s at Walmart or Best Buy that either do not offer smart TV’s or have not updated their smart OS for years. No more than two weeks after I noticed a Phillips Smart TV boasting 100 apps did it all of a sudden announce a new partnership with Roku. Here is a name to pay attention to Vizio. Known for great looking screens but very indecisive on smart TV interfaces, this company is ripe for a streaming partner that will take the burden on streaming away.

Increased sales (Because of YouTube)
As more products enter the market Roku has only grown. Bloggers long ago gave up calling every new streaming product a Roku Killer. Past Roku killers included the Chromecast and Fire TV and some very forgettable items along the way. But there are things that are hurting the competition. Amazon is in the midst of a nasty fight with Google that has led the Fire TV to be without a YouTube app. I expect Google will make that point going forward through adds for things like Chromecast or other clever ways. It is after all one of the biggest add sales companies in the world. Apple TV has gained very little mileage with its 4K Apple TV due to its high price and late entry. Right now Roku is poised to take advantage of the YouTube situation with simple add like 5k apps Including “YouTube”. Because while savvy users are fully aware of the new browser workarounds for Fire TV others who don’t understand how they work are going to avoid the product. Try to tell an aging baby boomer “oh the fire tv doesn’t have YouTUbe but you can still get it if you add this browser and then go to the site and blah blah blah. If lack of YouTube on Roku drove sales of Apple TV in the past, Lack of YouTube will hurt Fire TV and help Roku now.