Roku is also in the news this week because there is still no agreement with AT-T Warner Media to provide the HBO Max streaming service on the Roku platform. The two sides are expected to discuss last week before the launch of HBO Max on Wednesday. “The agreement was clearly mutually beneficial from a market share perspective, but we believe ROKU has benefited enormously from heavy tCL lifting,” Stephens analyst Kyle Evans wrote in a statement released last week, according to Seeking Alpha. Evans also stated that “the duration/size of what we believe ROKU will outperform compared to its main partner.” Yet TCL faces many challenges. One of them is the threat of tariffs which, despite an initial trade agreement between China and the United States, is not yet completely ruled out. Streit argued that TCL would be able to reduce these risks because of its global presence in production, but he also acknowledged: “We are not fans of these taxes.” Roku, which has had a partnership agreement for the supply of the operating system for TCL-Smart-T-T-T since 2014, is present. The company said Wednesday during its Q2 earnings report that active accounts have 43 million, up 41% in 12 months. The sale of Roku TCL TVs may be the main driver of this expansion. Although At-T (which owns WarnerMedia and HBO Max) announced in May that it had a Roku app, it has still not reached an agreement with Roku, which will bring millions of Roku devices to the HBO Max app. Fortunately, there are a few issues that allow Roku owners to see HBO Max anyway. They`re not as comfortable as a dedicated HBO Max app — something that`s available on many other devices, from Fire TV to Apple TV, smart TVs, game consoles and Android and Apple phones and tablets — but they`re better than nothing. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Comcast that will bring Peacock to Roku customers and maintain access to NBCU`s TV Everywhere applications,” said a Roku spokesperson. “We look forward to offering these new options to consumers as part of a broader and mutually beneficial relationship between our businesses, including the addition of NBC content to the Roku channel and a judicious partnership around advertising.
In 2016, TCL agreed with BlackBerry Limited to produce smartphones under the BlackBerry brand[23] under BlackBerry Mobile. This agreement was suspended on 31 August 2020. For months, neither Roku nor Comcast were able to agree on aspects of the agreement. Much of it was related to the advertising inventory. This refers to the percentage of ads Roku takes control of once they are provided on its platform.