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Roku Beats Q1 and Raises 2026 Outlook as Platform Ads and Subscriptions Surge

Advertising with subscriptions now powers Roku’s push for profitable platform growth.

Overview

  • Roku posted Q1 revenue of about $1.25 billion and profit of $85.7 million, results released Thursday that beat forecasts and lifted the stock in after-hours trading.
  • For the first time it split platform results into ads and subscriptions, with ads at about $613 million up 27% and subscriptions at about $519 million up 30%, and Antenna estimates its $2.99 Howdy service has topped 1 million sign-ups.
  • The company raised 2026 guidance, forecasting about $5.0 billion in platform revenue, $535 million in devices revenue, and adjusted EBITDA of $675 million, and it guided Q2 revenue to roughly $1.3 billion.
  • Hardware stayed weak as devices revenue fell roughly 16% to about $118 million, and Roku warned higher memory costs could squeeze device margins later this year.
  • Usage stayed high with 38.7 billion streaming hours, up 8% year over year, and the company recently said it serves more than 100 million streaming households, a scale that helps draw more TV ad budgets to connected screens.