Roku announced that it made a deal with Best Buy to use the retailer’s first-party sales data to target ads on its streaming platform.

Roku this week announced That it would be selling its Roku-branded TV sets in Best Buy stores.

“Our goal is to create a better TV experience for everyone,” Julian Mintz, co-head of U.S. brand sales for Roku Media, said. “We’re bringing together our entire business to build the future of entertainment and advertising — making the TV experience simpler, offering the right marketing, data, tech, and scale to drive real results, and helping win the entire streamer’s journey together with Best Buy.”

The move comes as advertisers shift spending to streaming in order to reach the growing number of consumers who have cut the cord with pay TV and to take advantages of the enhanced targeting ability of connected TV. 

The deal also marks the first time Best Buy has partnered with a TV streaming platform to provide its first-party data for targeting and closed-loop measurement. ■

Despite reports of its demise, Xperi said it’s not done selling the TiVo Stream 4K device. But there's definitely a shift in retail strategy happening for this connected TV HDMI dongle. 

Now selling at the clearance-level price of $29.99, the streaming device appears to be exiting its previous go-to retail hub, Walmart, and is now taking up shop at Target. 

Last week, Wolfpoint Group, a company that helps retailers including Target launch new wares, announced that its client is launching the “TiVo 4K streamer product.” The TiVo Stream 4K is currently available at Target for $29.99, discounted from its previous $49.99 MSRP.

(This announcement surfaced when influential technology writer David Zatz, a longtime TiVo observer, noticed that the TiVo Stream 4K seems to be getting phased out of Walmart and Best Buy, drawing the ire of a Wolfpoint Group rep.)

Featured in prime Walmart “endcap” in-store locations last year, shortly after its April 2020 launch, the TiVo Stream 4K does seem to be getting superseded at America’s biggest big box store by Walmart’s own, new Onn-branded Android TV streaming device, which is also priced to move at $30. And the Stream 4K isn't even available at Best Buy, a longtime go-to destination for TiVo DVRs. (A TiVo rep told Next TV Thursday that the company is still selling products at Best Buy, but it is "in the process of switching from a third-party vendor to a direct sales relationship.")

The Target announcement comes amid overall confusion over TiVo Stream 4K’s fate. 

In early May, TiVo’s new parent company, Xperi, said that it was pivoting away from Android TV, the software that TiVo Stream 4K is based on, with Google now also planning to use the OS as a foundation for its own search-and-recommendation UX overlay software, Google TV. 

Xperi said its plan now is to deploy the TiVo Stream 4K software, sans Android TV, as a smart TV OEM operating system, competing with Roku and Google TV. 

“What has changed is last fall, Google came out and said that they intend to go beyond their core OS level offering and really get into the UX business, and in so doing, it eclipses one’s ability to think [they can] reasonably be an alternative that might otherwise live on their lower level platform,” said Xperi CEO John Kirchner to equity research analysts during Xperi’s first-quarter earnings call on May 5. 

A number of folks in the tech media interpreted that to mean that Xperi is pivoting away from its TiVo Stream 4K HDMI dongle—a read certainly not undermined when Xperi cut the price of existing inventory by 40%.

Xperi reps didn’t immediately respond to Next TV’s inquiry for clarity on the TiVo Stream 4K go-to-market strategy. However, the company told TechHive last month that new iterations of the TiVo Stream 4K device are on the way, and that Xperi is still making TiVo Stream 4K hardware “and will continue to do so.”

Amazon and Best Buy announced a product refresh for the lineup of Toshiba-branded smart TV’s powered by the Amazon Fire TV OTT operating system.

Starting in mid-May, Best Buy will sell the Toshiba C350 Series sets, arriving in 43- and 50-inch iterations, featuring 4K, HDR and HDR-10 resolution support, as well as DTS and Virtual: X capabilities. Larger screen sizes—55-, 65- and 75-inch versions—are “coming soon,” Amazon and Best Buy said.

The C350 line also includes “Live View Picture in Picture” to enhance whole-home Alexa voice functionality. “For example, if you press the mic button on your Fire TV Remote and say ‘Alexa, preview my front door camera’ or when someone rings a paired video doorbell, a Live View Picture in Picture video feed from that camera will appear on top of whatever show or movie is playing,” Amazon said in a blog announcing the new product line. 

The new sets also tack on additional HDMI and USB ports. 

In 2017, Japan’s Toshiba, which used to be a top consumer electronics brand in the U.S., sold 95% of its TV manufacturing business to China’s Hisense for $113.6 million. And notably, Hisense also manufactures TVs sold by Best Buy under the big box retailer’s Insignia brand.

According to Statista, Hisense was the fifth largest supplier of smart TVs to the U.S. in 2020, controlling around 5% of shipments. 

Hisense also sells TVs powered by Roku and Android TV.

Chinese TV manufacturers Hisense and TCL have quickly established their global market share, and expanded the reach of their associated connected TV device platforms, by significantly undercutting incumbent Korean smart TV leaders, including Samsung and LG. 

Roku, for example, controls an industry-leading 37% of streaming usage on TVs in the U.S. according to just-released Conviva data. And it got put into this lofty position due in no small part to brisk sales of TCL-made smart TVs at Best Buy. 

According to the latest Consumer Reports data, the quality of these Chinese-made smart TV sets has improved a bit of late, but they still trail the higher priced models from Korean and Japanese makers. 

In a world where consumers expect an Apple-level performance of IP devices, a willingness by streaming tech companies to distribute their connected TV OS platforms on flimsy hardware could make a difference over time. 

In the category of smart TVs ranging in size from 46 inches to 52 inches—which is generally the mid-range in terms of consumer pricing—sets branded Insignia, TCL, Toshiba and Hisense rank ahead of Vizio-branded models in terms of buyer surveys, but they trail Samsung, Sony, LG and Sharp. 

In the lowest priced 32-inch category, Hisense and Toshiba rank ahead of TCL, but are well behind market leader Samsung in qualitative assessment. 

Philo has announced a new partnership with Best Buy--yes, "strategic"!--in which the virtual pay TV service will be marketed along with select devices at the brick-and-mortar retail chain. 

The San Francisco-based streaming startup said this is its first such retail deal. The announcement also claims that this is the first such tie-up with a streaming service for the national big-box chain, which is a little harder to believe. 

Under the agreement, Best Buy shoppers can get a free month of Philo when they purchase select streaming devices, smart TVs and antennas. Or they simply sign up for Philo through Best Buy, they'll get 50% off their first bill. 

Philo is the lowest priced virtual MVPD, offering 61 channels for $20 a month, sans ESPN or much sports at all. The service announced in August that it had accumulated 750,000 paid subscribers, up 300% year over year. 

“We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Best Buy, and it opens the door to a whole new segment of customers to embrace the future of TV," said Andrew McCollum, CEO of Philo, in a statement. "Complexity is still the biggest barrier for consumers looking to cut the cord and switch to streaming TV, and Best Buy has a long history of helping customers navigate the best tech and entertainment products all in one place.” 

Roku shares dropped almost 12% Wednesday in the wake of an exclusive, multi-year deal between Amazon and Best Buy that will result in a large lineup of 4K and HD smart TVs powered by Fire TV’s platform for the U.S. and Canada.

RELATED: Amazon, Best Buy Strike Exclusive Smart TV Deal

Roku’s smart TV licensing partners include three Funai Electric brands (Sanyo, Philips and Magnavox), RCA, TCL, Element Electronics, Hitachi America, Sharp, and Hisense. Roku’s smart TV partners had also included Insignia (Best Buy’s Brand), up until the Amazon-Best Buy deal was announced.

The deal announced between Amazon and Best Buy today includes Fire TV Edition sets from Best Buy/Insignia as well as Toshiba. Amazon also has a Fire TV Edition agreement with another Roku partner, Element Electronics.

Roku’s fast growing Platforms business includes advertising, subscription revenue sharing as well as licensing fees from TV makers that have integrated Roku’s operating system. That piece of Roku’s business soared 129%, to $85.43 million, in Q4 2017.

Smart TVs integrated with Roku’s platform have become a key way for Roku to attract consumers to its platform. In its Q4 results, Roku said more than half of new accounts came way of licensed sources during the period.

Roku shares closed down $4.26 (11.84%) to $31.72 each Wednesday. 

Roku is scheduled to release Q1 2018 results the afternoon of Wednesday, May 9. 

In a deal that matches two retailing giants, Amazon and Best Buy have struck an exclusive multi-year deal to sell a line of Fire TV Edition smart TVs in the U.S. and Canada.  

Starting this summer, Best Buy plans to introduce more than 10 4K and HD Fire TV Edition models from Insignia (Best Buy’s in-house brand) and Toshiba. All will run the built-in Fire TV user interface/streaming platform that also builds in Amazon’s Alexa-powered voice navigation and smart home technology.  

The companies said Fire TV Edition smart TVs will be available exclusively in Best Buy stores, at BestBuy.com and, for the first time, via Best Buy as a third-party seller on Amazon.com.  

The deal will expand the reach of Amazon’s Fire TV Edition platform for TV makers, augmenting models made by TV making partners that include Westinghouse, Seiki and Element Electronics.  

RELATED: Fire TV Platform Roars Into Smart TV Market (subscription required)  

The Best Buy deal also shores up Fire TV’s positioning against competitors that have built their platforms into smart TVs, including Roku and Android TV, as well as home-grown smart TV platforms from Samsung (Tizen) and LG Electronics (webOS). 

RELATED: Sanyo Joins Roku TV Lineup 

“Amazon and Best Buy have a long history of working together, and today we take our partnership to a new level,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. "These Fire Edition smart TVs by Insignia and Toshiba deliver beautiful visuals and all the movies and TV shows you love, with an experience that gets better every day with Alexa. We could not have a better partner in this endeavor.” 

Hubert Joly, Best Buy’s chair and CEO, added: “Our goal is to enrich the lives of our customers by offering them the very best products and services, whether they come to us online, visit our stores, or invite us into their homes. Our partnership with Amazon is exciting because we believe Fire TV Edition delivers an incredible user experience and further strengthens the growing connection between home theater, home automation and voice control.” 

When you rearrange the letters of "reality" (as in "virtual" or "augmented"), you get "retail" with a leftover "y."

As in "why."

Several reports last week underscored the shifting realities in the retail business, while a separate influx of developments slammed home the imminence of altered video reality, whether you like it or not. And, yes, the two categories are connected.

As in "interconnected."

Best Buy, the electronics retail behemoth, surprised Wall Street last week by reporting a small increase in quarterly revenue -- thanks almost entirely to a sizeable 23% year-over-year climb in online sales (about $1 billion in the first quarter), which offset in-store sales declines. Analysts quickly noted that Best Buy's unexpected jump came amid devastating consumer electronics (CE) fates at other retailers, notably h.h. gregg and RadioShack (forgotten but not yet gone), both of which have filed for bankruptcy. (Pictured: Radio Shack storefront in Bethesda, Md., on May 14; photo by Gary Arlen)

At the same time, TWICE magazine, in its annual Top 100 Retailers issue, concluded that "Most A/V-based dealers are still reeling from the commoditization of TV." Indeed, the only big winner among the magazine's Top 10 was Amazon, which showed a year-over-year consumer electronics sales increase of 25.4%, retaining its No. 2 position behind Best Buy, which had an overall 0.8% CE sales increase. Other large national retailers in the category included Walmart (down 5%), Apple stores (-3.6%) and Target (-6.5%). TWICE, an MCN cousin publication, covers the consumer electronics retail business.

Those retail trends are reminders of the connections that are reshaping the entertainment/technology landscape.

Separately, Digital Entertainment Group revealed its latest analysis early this month, showing that U.S. subscription video-on-demand revenue has exceeded DVD sales and rentals for the first time. DEG expects that SVOD and other digital delivery systems will soon constitute the largest share of the home entertainment budget. The study found a steep decline in the purchase and rental of entertainment content from 2015 to 2017 (purchases from 44% to 37% and rentals from 30% to 24%) while SVOD has boomed from 26% to 38% in the past two years.

Collectively these developments confirm several realities: Tangible media and brick-mortar stores are fading as digital delivery (including online merchandising) ascend. That's been a 15-year trend, and it rearranges the digital entertainment playing field in a way that offers challenges and opportunities to broadband companies -- especially ones that are looking toward the next realities.

For example: the imminence of VR and AR as part of the evolving video ecosystem.

At the Google i/o developers conference this month, Google offered more details about how it will bring augmented reality capabilities to browsers, especially on mobile devices. Observers quickly tied those features to retailing, such as allowing a person shopping for furniture to use the mobile app to scan a room digitally (with the device's camera) to determine the proper size before placing an online order via Amazon.

As in "Amazon, the go-to preference for all kinds of products" -- not just digital content.

Factor this creeping entry of VR and AR into the entertainment arena, and it's easy to perceive the overhaul taking shape in retail reality -- and the looming competition from digital-first providers such as Google and Amazon as they open yet another front in the pocket-book/attention economy. Major retailers -- which at various times had been considered "coopitition" for broadband carriers -- now have their primary relationships with wireless broadband providers. They (and their virtual storefronts) sell mobile devices and services, including the tools that enable VR and AR.

Moreover, as live TV streaming, a core feature of some competitive skinny bundles, becomes a larger factor in the mobile (and wired) online ecosystem, retailers also have opportunities to insert themselves into that business, and not just smart TVs and digital receivers, but all kinds of viewing devices. It's a way of making up for the lost business in sales of DVDs and other physical media, which they have been abandoning for several years anyway.

Collectively, the retail and video viewing migration plus the rapid VR/AR developments are reminders of the rearranged ecosystem in which carriers will operate. The reality is that viewers will still have to buy their hardware somewhere, but it may not be from retailers as we knew them.

Hence, everyone is trying to figure out how the new augmented and virtual realities play into this altered verisimilitude.

Insignia, the in-house Best Buy CE brand, has introduced a set of 4K-capable LED TV models that integrate the Roku OTT/apps platform starting at $399.

Pricing and dimensions for the first three UHD Roku TVs from Insignia, available at BestBuy.com starting today and hitting Best Buy stores nationwide in early April, for the U.S. are as follows:

- 43-inch 4K Insignia Roku TV: $399

- 50-inch 4K Insignia  Roku TV: $499.99

- 55-inch 4K Insignia Roku TV: $649.99

All three feature the new Roku OS and access to 3,000 streaming channels in the U.S., including more than 10 that offer content in the 4K format, including Netflix, PLEX, YouTube, and UltraFlix.

The new Roku-powered Insignia TVs for sale in the U.S. feature a quad-core processor and 802.11ac dual-band WiFi, and comply with the Consumer Technology Association certification requirements to bear the organization’s 4K Ultra HD Connected label.

The TVs can be controlled with the included remote or via Roku’s mobile app for iOS and  Android devices.

Insignia and Roku said they will also offer 43-inch and 50-inch 4K TV models at Best Buy stores in Canada and at BestBuy.ca.

In January, Roku said TCL planned to introduce 4K-capable Roku TV models in the U.S. this spring, and that it was introducing a Roku TV reference design that incorporates support for high dynamic range (HDR). Other Roku TV partners include Haier America, Sharp, and Hisense.  LG Electronics sold two "entry level" Roku TV HDTV models during at Best Buy during the 2015 holiday season. 

Of that group, TCL said last October that it expected to ship its 1 millionth Roku TV by the end of 2015.

Roku launched its first 4K-capable streaming player, the Roku 4, last fall.