Roku‘s second-quarter 2023 earnings soundly beat Wall Street expectations, while it still sounded a note of caution about “muted” TV ad spending in the U.S.
The company reported Q2 revenue of $847.2 million, up 11%, and a net loss of $107.6 million (-$0.76 per share). Analysts expected an adjusted loss of $1.28 per share on revenue of $773.49 million. Operating expenses climbed 8%, to $504 million, but declined sequentially from $550 million in Q1.
Roku added 1.9 million new active streaming accounts in the period to reach 73.5 million, versus 71.6 million the prior quarter and up 16% year over year. Platform revenue was $744 million, up 11%. Roku’s Platform segment comprises ads sales; revenue from distribution deals for streaming services including FAST channels; media and entertainment promotions; and Roku Pay.
“While Q2 Platform revenue exceeded our expectations, the macro environment continued to create uncertainty with the total U.S. advertising market flat YoY in Q2,” Roku execs wrote in their letter to shareholders.
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For the third quarter, Roku said it expects total net revenue of roughly $815 million (which would be a year-over-year increase of 7%), total gross profit of roughly $355 million (versus $357 million a year prior), and adjusted EBITDA of -$50 million (compared with -$34.4 million in Q3 2022).
With the ongoing WGA writers and SAG-AFTRA actors strikes, Roku is anticipating lower media and entertainment promotional spending in Q3, newly named CFO Dan Jedda said on the earnings call. In addition, Charlie Collier, head of Roku Media and former CEO of Fox Entertainment, said Roku’s upfront ad-sales negotiations have been proceeding at a slower pace than expected.
“It is a very different year in the upfront for everyone,” Collier said. “It is proceeding at a slower pace than usual” but “we’re methodically working through the market with our agency partners.”
On the earnings beat, Roku stock was up more than 8% in after-hours trading Thursday, bouncing back from an 8.7% decline in the previous five-day period.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company has taken steps to cut costs, including with two rounds of layoffs announced in November 2022 and March 2023. The company is aiming to deliver positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for full-year 2024.
In Q2, the company said, streaming hours on the Roku Channel grew more than 50% year over year (but it didn’t break out a number). In addition, Roku highlighted that Nielsen for the first time reported viewing share for the Roku Channel for May 2023, when it had an estimated 1.1% of total U.S. TV viewing (representing 3% of streaming hours for the month), tying with NBCUniversal’s Peacock and putting it just behind Fox’s Tubi and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max.
On the content front, Roku at its NewFronts event in May announced several new unscripted originals, including a new season of “The Great American Baking Show” and an unscripted comedy featuring singer-songwriter Charlie Puth among the shows coming to the Roku Channel. Last month, in Roku Media’s first live sports deal, it announced a multiyear deal with Formula E to exclusively stream the electric-car racing circuit’s races in the U.S.
