Millions of Americans Streamed Election News for Free on the Roku Platform Breaking TV Streaming Records; Likely Voters Cut the Cord and Embraced AVOD

Following the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, Roku, Inc. (Nasdaq:ROKU) today released new data detailing the significant growth in consumption of election-related news via streaming on the Roku platform. The analysis coincides with newly released data from a nationwide survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, conducted by The Harris Poll for Roku prior to the November elections, which found that more than 8 out of 10 (83%) surveyed likely voters reported being streamers. News viewership and streaming adoption trends help to shed new light on the evolving patterns of an electorate that drove the largest voter turnout in American history.

With most voters leaning into connected television viewing, streaming of U.S. election news surged across the Roku platform during the traditional peak of the campaign season from the 2020 national conventions in August on through to Election Day. According to a viewership analysis, Roku households with an estimated 20 million people streamed election news across the platform’s multiple free, advertising-supported news channels, including directly on The Roku Channel. The analysis covered viewership of the DNC and RNC conventions, both presidential debates and two townhalls, the vice presidential debate and Election Day coverage.

“TV streaming democratizes access to content and nowhere have we seen this trend come into play more than with the ability for millions of Americans to access free news at their convenience via their streaming platform,” said Ashley Hovey, Director of AVOD for Roku. “This election season, households with tens of millions of people were able to stream live news from some of the world’s most respected media outlets, including ABC and NBC News, for free on the Roku platform.”

On Election Day in particular, homes including an estimated 12 million viewers streamed their news on the Roku platform for free. More than half of those streaming news on the Roku platform on Election Day tuned directly to The Roku Channel for its broad selection of free live news offerings from partners including ABC News Live, NBC News Now, Cheddar, and the Spanish language América Tevé. Total streaming hours of The Roku Channel’s live linear programming increased more than 500% on Election Day compared to the prior day, breaking all previous single day records for live linear streaming hours on the Roku platform.