Q&A with Roku CEO Anthony Wood on working at Netflix while running Roku early on, partnering with Chinese TV makers, competing with tech giants, and ads on Roku
Eric Johnson / Recode : Tweets: @ophirgottlieb Tweets: Ophir Gottlieb / @ophirgottlieb : Why Roku isn't afraid of competition from Apple, Google and Amazon http://www.recode.net/... - $ROKU “They're too busy selling phones and shoes to do TV right, CEO Anthony Wood says.”
Context & Ripple Effects
This Q&A lands mid-pivot for Roku. Two months earlier, Anthony Wood told The Verge that the company's ad business and software licensing to TV makers had already outgrown device sales in Q1, and his 2016 Business Insider interview laid out the same playbook earlier still: license the Roku OS to manufacturers rather than fight them on hardware. The Variety profiles from January 2018 framed Wood himself — including his unusual early arrangement working at Netflix while running Roku — as central to that strategy.
The new material in this conversation is the competitive framing and the China angle: Wood dismisses Apple, Google, and Amazon as 'too busy selling phones and shoes' to do TV right, while Roku deepens partnerships with Chinese TV makers to widen its installed base. That matters because every licensed set is more ad inventory on a platform where advertising is now the revenue engine.
First-order effects
- Partnerships with Chinese TV makers directly expand Roku's licensed-OS footprint, converting hardware partners into distribution for the ad business Wood says now generates more revenue than device sales.
- Wood's public dismissal of Apple, Google, and Amazon sharpens Roku's positioning as the TV-focused specialist against diversified giants whose TV efforts compete with their own phone and retail priorities.
Second-order effects
- Apple, Google, and Amazon face pressure to respond on distribution terms — their rival smart-TV platforms must match Roku's willingness to license broadly to third-party and Chinese manufacturers or cede living-room reach.
- As Roku aggregates more sets under one OS, advertisers gain consolidated TV-streaming inventory, shifting pricing power toward Roku relative to individual TV makers and app publishers competing for the same ad dollars.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, TV operating systems consolidate into a few licensed platforms monetized primarily through advertising, with hardware brands becoming interchangeable shells — a structure Wood was already describing when discussing licensing Roku's tech and OS to TV makers back in 2016, and one the company was still extending in 2025 as it pushed further beyond hardware into services and the Roku Channel.
- The specialist-versus-giant dynamic suggests big-tech entrants may keep struggling in TV not for lack of resources but because TV requires focus their core businesses don't reward — though whether that advantage persists as those giants reorganize around streaming remains an open question.
The trend: Streaming TV is consolidating around licensed operating systems monetized through advertising rather than device sales, with focused specialists like Roku leveraging manufacturer partnerships against diversified tech giants.