Roku’s New Strategy Could Change How You Watch TV Forever

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]As streaming services continue to expand, the growing abundance of content is creating a major discovery crisis as viewers spend more time searching for what to watch than actually watching it.

[00:00:11]Joining us now is Margaret Schmidt, VP of UX design and research at Roku to talk through all of this and more. Thank you so much for being here, Margaret.

[00:00:19]>> Thanks for the opportunity.

[00:00:21]>> Of course. So, for viewers who may not be familiar, give us a quick overview of Roku and where the company stands today.

[00:00:28]>> Yeah, so Roku is a streaming platform.

[00:00:30]You can get it as a TV, you can get it as a player or a streaming stick, and it's a way to get to your favorite shows, to your favorite apps, and watch the content that you love.

[00:00:41]>> Yeah, it's an incredible service, but there are so many other services out there, somewhat similar, right? With all of these different streaming options, so many different content options out there, more than ever before, really.

[00:00:52]So, how is that created what many people are calling this kind of discovery crisis for viewers?

[00:00:57]>> Yeah, so when you sit down to watch TV, you have the shows from all your favorite streaming services, and the decision of like what to watch right now is really challenging. You know, are you in the mood for something from HBO Max or something from Apple TV? Like even that is a hard decision. And so, we really want to as a platform, as this like gateway, this front door to your streaming services, we wanted to help you actually find that content faster and make your decisions easier.

[00:01:25]>> Yeah, so tell us a little bit more about how you do that because you're right, people are always sitting there thinking, okay, this one, this one, going through, toggling between all of the different services. So, what is Roku doing now to change that?

[00:01:36]>> Yeah, so what we announced today is our new home screen. This is the first time we've touched the home screen in this major way in over a decade, and it's ahead of rolling out to like 100 million users over the next couple of weeks and months.

[00:01:50]Um, we really looked at what can we do to be more helpful. Like Roku has always been simple, we've been delightful, we have Roku City, like it is a fun environment to be in, but we presented app tiles to you and said, you know, pick one and click. And what we're doing now is putting, you know, recommendations, top picks up at the top, um to help where we look at, you know, what is it the kind of content that you're watching, what is it you like, how do we help you get to that? We uh There's recent Harris poll and uh 82% of users said, "I would really like it if I just turned on my TV and what I wanted to watch was right there and I didn't have to find it." So, we're we're putting that kind of a change into Roku.

[00:02:27]You can still get to all of your apps, they're right there. In fact, we're making them easier to get to the ones that you actually use. So, instead of that long list of apps where you might have to go down really far to find the one you want, if you're using it um frequently, it's going to pop up to the top. And so, those are the kinds of changes that we're making, how we, you know, how we make it more personalized, how we help you find that content.

[00:02:49]>> Yeah, I mean, helping users, yeah, to find that content is so important as people sit there trying to sift through the many different options, right? So, tell us a little bit more about how you actually got to this point. You were mentioning that you uh talked to people, you did surveys, you did research. How did you figure out exactly what you wanted to do for this home screen update?

[00:03:09]>> Yeah, so sitting down, we, you know, we started with like, what is really important for Roku? What are we about?

[00:03:15]And simplicity has always been our North Star. We looked at the like, do we want to completely reinvent Roku or do we just want to refine what we have? And we did look at some wild ideas, but we also looked at like, the core of what we have today is so loved by our customers, so useful and simple and easy. They're like, let's start with that and say, what is the most simple and delightful way we can add on to this? And so, yes, we we did research, we watched people in their homes in different countries, how do they watch TV? We did eye tracking studies where we had people put on glasses and look at different interfaces, ours and others, and said, like, "Where is their eye drawn? Like, what what brings attention?" One thing we noticed is how important faces are.

[00:03:58]And so, one of the um the things you'll see in our new UI is when you go to browse, say, like, "Do you want a comedy? Are you in the mood for something new and popular or anime?"

[00:04:07]We'll actually use images in those tiles to draw you in. And there will be personal images, and hopefully something that you can connect to to kind of create that emotional connection like, "Yes, that's what I want to watch." And so, that's part of how we we really you know, we've been user-centric from the beginning. It's really important to us that what we create continues to be loved so much by our customers.

[00:04:27]>> Yeah, that's such an interesting concept to, first of all, for research, we're actually watching people's eyeballs move, and then also thinking how to translate that into images that would speak to people more. Tell us a little bit more about that personalization and the IA the AI piece of all of this as well, and how that's affecting streaming platforms when it comes to content recommendations, navigation, all of those pieces.

[00:04:49]>> Yeah. When you think about what AI or ML, machine learning, can do for us, you know, there's so many different combinations, what's unique about a household and what they watch, all of the content that's out there, what are the services that they subscribe to. And that's where we call our our our brain behind the Roku recommendations is we're looking at those different signals and saying, "For this household, for this device even, for this time of day, what do we think is going to be most appealing?" You know, the TV that you watch in the living room with the whole family on a on movie night might be very different than what you watch first thing in the morning, maybe you're catching up on news, maybe you have a TV next to a treadmill and you you only save certain shows for like, "I will work out and watch this show." So, you know, it's really tuning to all of that.

[00:05:34]And so, we have a robust engineering team, AI and ML engineers really think about how do we personalize for this device across all these streaming services, which is different than how a streaming service might look at just their content and how they how they um surface that teasers.

[00:05:50]>> Yeah, thinking about that content piece of things. I mean, a lot of companies are focusing on just adding more and more content, but you're talking more about the future maybe being more about making that content easier to find and more personalized. So, why is that such a critical differentiator?

[00:06:05]>> Yeah, I mean, one of the things we see um also in this research was like 57% of users said, "I am so overwhelmed by my content choices it's slowing me down."

[00:06:16]And a lot of services go to the like, "I'm just going to do rows and rows and rows of content." You kind of have to slog through it to find something. We took a different approach. We said, "Hey, we're going to pick four or five things to show to users.

[00:06:28]If that appeals, they can click on one of those, but they can also go into this concept of destinations where they can dive down deeper. So, maybe you know right now that you want a comedy, but you don't know which service is going to have the best comedy for you. You can go into the comedy section on Roku and see from each of your streaming services what comedy they have. And so, we're kind of narrowing the choice space. It's kind of reducing friction, right? It shouldn't feel like so much work to find something that's supposed to be lean back entertainment and joy.

[00:06:58]>> That's such a good point because often times it does feel like work. You're like, "I want to watch something, but now I have a 20-minute process until I can get to the point of actually picking something to watch." So, definitely so important there. Tell us a little bit more about how the streaming wars, the recent studio consolidations are all pushing platforms to think differently about the user experience.

[00:07:18]>> Yeah, well, when you think about what you're connected with as a user, you're connected with that show and the brand of the show, and you may not even make a connection with exactly which streaming service it's with. And so, that can be hard to keep track of, right? So, there are mergers, consolidations, sometimes shows even switch which provider they're from. And so, we're trying to make it easier so that you don't have to think through that process and just say, "We know this is a show that you love or would love. A great example for me was I watched all of The Handmaid's Tale. I had no idea that The Testaments was a like a follow-on show to that until I saw it on the Roku home screen. I'm like, yes, that. And so that's what we're really trying to help with is like how do we connect streaming services with their users? How do connect users with their content? Like how do we make it easier for everyone to find the shows that you know you're going to love?

[00:08:10]>> Yeah, that connecting is so important as the decision fatigue happens to all of us and as you're saying, I didn't actually know that that was a follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale either. So I'm going to have to check that out now.

[00:08:22]Is it really? Okay, I need to look I need to look that up because I love The Handmaid's Tale.

[00:08:27]Tell us a little bit more as we look to the future. What should viewers and the industry be expecting next when it comes to the evolution of the streaming user experience? We're excited to see the new changes to the home screen for Roku.

[00:08:38]What can we expect in the industry overall as we move forward?

[00:08:41]>> Yeah, I mean I think it's something the entire industry is grappling with and the question is like how do you approach it? Do you approach it with like simplicity and reducing choice? Do you increase choice? Like from the Roku perspective, we think that's going to be a challenge. Like all that content is still there. You can search for anything. We know every show across all of the services and how to find it. But how do we simplify that experience? I think it's going to be important. And then the personalization, like how do you make sure that, you know, your platform understands you and what you want and can actually be helpful on the journey. So I feel like helpfulness is the next important move. Like how do we all become more helpful for users because the world is complicated enough.

[00:09:24]TV does not need to be.

[00:09:26]>> That's such a good point. Taking away the complication factor would be so nice for everyone using all of these streaming services. Thank you so much, Margaret Schmidt, VP of UX design and research at Roku. We really appreciate you being here today.

[00:09:39]>> Thank you.