Roku’s $3 streaming service Howdy will be coming to other platforms, CEO says

At CES 2026, Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder, chairman, and CEO, offered a hint astir the aboriginal of the company’s newest streaming channel, Howdy, and its ambition to go a broader rival successful the market. Launched past August, the $2.99 per period streaming work offers ad-free entree to room content, astatine a clip erstwhile rival streamers are raising their prices.

“The accidental for Howdy was — if you conscionable look astatine what’s going connected successful the streaming satellite with streaming services, they’re getting much expensive. They support raising prices, and they support adding larger and larger advertisement loads,” Wood explained astatine the Variety Entertainment Summit astatine CES. “And so, the portion of the marketplace wherever it really started — low-cost and nary ads — is gone now. There’s nary streaming services that code that information of the market.”

The exec besides suggested that Roku intends to bring Howdy to a broader marketplace than conscionable Roku customers, saying that portion it started connected Roku, the institution “will instrumentality it off-platform arsenic well.”

Asked to clarify offstage if that meant mobile apps, the web, and elsewhere, Wood told TechCrunch the institution has not yet said where, specifically, it plans to bring Howdy, but that “we privation to administer it everywhere.”  That seems to suggest that Howdy could beryllium an app that you 1 time load connected immoderate device, ample oregon small. Wood declined to stock subscriber numbers with TechCrunch, but said onstage, “I deliberation if I conscionable look astatine the market, it’s going to beryllium a large streaming service.”