Five Signs Roku and Connected TV are Here to Stay.

A revolution is happening right before your eyes…

It’s been six years since Roku shipped it’s first Roku player, the very first device to stream Netflix to a TV. That sparked a revolution, and today Netflix is but one of 1,000's of channels available on Roku; Connected TV continues to grow by leaps and bounds every day, and companies everywhere are racing to develop complimentary technology and content alike.

Recently, I told an industry group, to a standing ovation,

“Connected TV (including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, OperaTV, and others) is the fastest growing segment of the entertainment industry and the fastest growing new technology since the Internet.”

Yes, Connected TV is here to stay, and here’s proof. (I hijacked some of this from the Roku blog at http://blog.roku.com and mixed it in the Magic Bullet with some other info I’ve gathered.)

• According to Digital TV Research, globally there are now over 480 million TVs in use that are connected to the Internet. This number grows EVERY DAY (think Internet circa 1995, it’s in rapid-scale mode.) Nearly 100 million homes in the U.S. are “connected.”
• Once the size of a placemat, the set-top box is now a tiny stick. Remember those big ‘ol “boxes” the cable company handed out? Roku is down to slightly bigger than a thumb-drive, and cable companies are now FOLLOWING suit. (Keyword there is FOLLOWING. In fact, they are struggling to catch up, a la the newspaper industry and the Internet in the 90’s and 00's.)
• “Binging,” and “spoiler alert” are new established words in the TV viewing vernacular, and in fact, the latter was recently added to the dictionary.
• Original series created just for streaming paved the way for a new model of production and distribution with full series releases, and created Emmy award-winning programs along the way. (Think Arrested Development Season 4.)
• Favorite TV shows from the past including Veronica Mars, Arrested Development, The Sopranos, and 24 now get a second life in the new TV economy
• As broadcast networks continue to catch-on, more and more new TV shows like Nashville, Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, How I Met Your Mother, Blacklist, and The Following, can now be streamed.
• TV is more popular than ever with heavy streamers watching an average of SEVEN HOURS or more per day. That’s more than we/I/people my age did when WE were kids — and WE were the TV generation! To compare, the average HOUSEHOLD in the 1980's watched 7 hours per day of TV — that was the ENTIRE household. Now we’re talking PER PERSON.

Something to think — and talk — about. In fact, if “Connected TV” is not part of your business- or marketing vocabulary yet, you’re missing the boat …again.

Phil Autelitano is Founder/CEO of Mediarazzi — we develop TV channels and applications for Connected TV, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, OperaTV and more. www.mediarazzi.com

@PhilAutelitano