Will we soon see a Netflix box similar to Apple TV or Amazon’s Fire Stick?

Where Amazon has its Fire Stick and Apple its Apple TV, Netflix is ​​quite simply content with its streaming service and devices from other manufacturers. But at a time when the red N is going through a difficult patch, all means are good to consider new avenues of development. According Business Insider, a company also in difficulty would see itself joining Los Gatos. This is Roku, which provides, among other things, fairly popular multimedia boxes in the United States.

Internally, discussions are going well in favor of integrating the manufacturer into the SVoD platform. Especially since its management abruptly blocked the possibility for employees to sell their shares, a practice which is generally done before the publication of information likely to affect the share price, in order to avoid the crimes of insiders. An action that has already collapsed on the stock market in the last 10 months, a victim of competition from the big names in the sector. A year ago, Comcast had already positioned itself for a takeover, which had finally aborted.

Material, yes, but above all advertising

But beyond the look hardware, another essential parameter must be taken into account. It’s common knowledge that Netflix is ​​about to launch an ad-supported offer. However, the firm of Reed Hastings having so far always been reluctant to open up to this kind of practice, it is a novice in the matter and would be well advised to surround itself with actors who would already be at ease. Which is precisely the case with Roku.

With $647 million generated in the first quarter, the platform video advertising that Roku makes available to other companies has proven to be about seven times more lucrative than its media box business. On the Netflix side, we are used to takeovers intended to consolidate its activity in a particular area – we recently saw it in video games.

A transaction estimated at 88 billion dollars

As reminded Business Insider, Netflix and Roku also have a common history, the boss of the second having developed a decoder for the first in the 2000s. An activity that Reed Hastings had stopped in 2008 for fear of being excluded from competing boxes if Netflix had its own. . The future has proven that this fear was unfounded. On the contrary, having its own equipment could even create a new balance of power between the N red and its competitors, who logically would claim their place on such a box.

It remains to be seen whether, in its situation, Netflix can buy a company of the stature of Roku, and whether the American competition authority would validate such a transaction – which, it should be remembered, is for the moment only in the state of hypothesis. According to analysts, the acquisition could in any case cost the Los Gatos firm $88 billion. To be continued…