Roku's cutting prices on its Digital Video Players

Ahead of Apple's expected announcements today, Roku is now offering its three boxes for $60, $70, or $100. This is a $20 or $30 discount, based on which box you get.

Roku says it will also offer 1080p support to its "HD-XR" customers -- that's the $100 box -- later this year, via a free software update.

In January, Roku indicated that it had sold more than 500,000 of the video players.

WD TV Live - Best Selling Networked Digital Video Player

I had an interesting call with Western Digital yesterday regarding their WD TV Live Plus product, one that we categorize as a Networked Digital Video Player. They indicate that recent sales numbers actually have them leading this category for the U.S. market. They note that they're even beating the vaunted Roku Digital Video Player.

After years of hand-wringing about how (or if) digital media adapters would sell (which they really didn't until it was determined that streamed video was the one type of content that would spur their sales), Western Digital's role in consumer storage gives them an excellent brand at which to approach this market. If you look at the consumer segments that demonstrate the need for a stand-alone digital video player - lots of current consumption of online video, willingness to condider additional equipment to accomodate video streaming to the television, etc. - current network-attached storage users are a great fit. Our own data (see chart) shows just how much more NAS owners are interacting with online video.


In other connected TV news, Accedo Broadband has announced that it is in the TV apps business. Although the company has a legacy of developing gaming applications, it has expaded to include video and other digital media. They will be showing this at the upcoming IBC in Amsterdam.

Roku Player Sales at 500,000

Finally - some hard numbers in the digital media player device space. According to the article in Multichannel News, Roku has sold 500,000 of the devices, and is looking to double that figure in 2010.

Watching Amazon Video On Demand on a Connected CE Device

Since I updated the Netflix connected CE devices, here's a list of the devices where the Amazon Video On Demand Service is available:

• Xbox 360 (content must be downloaded to the PC first)
• TiVo
• Roku Digital Video Player
• Sony BRAVIA TV
• Panasonic VIERA CAST TV

More Connected CE Devices Doing Netflix Streaming

Now that Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link TVs can show Netflix streaming content, it's a good opportunity to revisit the connected CE devices playing Netflix content.

Connected TVs

• LG HDTVs with NetCast Broadband (55LH50, 47LH50, 42LH50, 60PS80, and 50PS80)
• Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link

Connected Blu-ray Players

• LG LG BD370 and LG BD390
• Samsung BD-P1600, BD-2500, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600

Connected Game Consoles

• Xbox 360

"Cloud Media" Set-top Boxes

• Roku Digital Video Player
• TiVo HD DVR

Connected Home Theater Systems

• LG Network Blu-ray Home Theater Systems (LHB953, LHB977)
• Samsung Blu-ray Home Theater Systems (HT-BD1250 or HT-BD7200)