Roku reported its second quarterly earnings report ever, since becoming a publicly traded company. Andre Swanston, CEO of Tru Optik, an audience measurement and data management platform for OTT, was with us to share why he thinks Roku is positioned for success.
Swanston said the OTT space is "so wild" in terms of the growth in penetration and time spent. On top of that, he said most of that growth is on ad supported platforms, not services like Netflix. This bodes well for Roku because they are the only pure-play OTT company on the street, Swanston said.
Roku debuted a licensing program for smart audio devices and expects the first to ship this fall. They're going up against Amazon, Google, and Apple. Swanston said Roku has no strategic advantage for a smart speaker and does not anticipate it being a significant revenue generator.
President Donald Trump is talking up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout of data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI.
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J.W. Roth, CEO of Venu Holding Corporation, discusses the company's IPO and plans to redefine live music entertainment with their fan founded, fan-owned model.
Variety's Clayton Davis discusses why more than just the 1% are struggling after the LA fires. Plus, how awards shows will pivot to help victims. Watch!
Emily Hosie, CEO of Rebelstork, explains the concept of Returns Recommerce, plus how her company raised $18M to address the industry-wide issue of returns.
