SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku is making a notable push to expand its potential revenue streams with the launch of a new SVOD service called Howdy that will feature more than 10,000 hours of programming from such companies as Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery and FilmRise. Priced at $2.99 a month, the ad-free service will also offer select Roku Original titles.
The service is launching in the U.S. on Aug. 5 with such titles as “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Blind Side,” “Weeds” and “Kids in the Hall,” as well as iconic rom-coms, medical dramas, ‘90s comedy, feel-good classics, and more, the streaming platform said.
“Priced at less than a cup of coffee, Howdy is ad-free and designed to complement, not compete with, premium services,” Roku Founder and CEO Anthony Wood said. “We’re meeting a real need for consumers who want to unwind with their favorite movies and shows uninterrupted and on their terms. Howdy is a natural step for us at Roku, extending our mission to make better TV for everyone, by making it affordable, accessible, and built for how people watch today.”
“We’re excited to continue our longstanding collaboration with Roku on innovative ways to connect with audiences,” Lionsgate President of Worldwide Television Distribution Jim Packer added. “With engagement of over 125 million people a day, Roku is the perfect partner to launch a more accessible complement to the higher-priced SVODs. This service has the ability to scale quickly while providing us with a new way to monetize our content, and we’re proud to be part of this new streaming experience.”
The launch is a notable diversification of Roku’s revenue streams, which have traditionally been heavily dependent on advertising and ad-supported services like The Roku Channel.
“While Roku’s platform revenues have always included fees from subscription services it helps others sell on its platform, it moved decisively into its own streaming services in 2025,” analysts at LightShed partners wrote in a note to investors. “In May 2025, Roku acquired a small vMVPD, Frndly, and today it launched a $2.99 ad-free subscription service called Howdy. Howdy appears to be an ad-free version of some of the catalog content you would find on The Roku Channel.”
“With Roku now using its home screen to promote content (vs. its legacy of app icons only), it has the ability to drive content discovery,” the note continued. “By adding owned and operated subscription services, Roku has an increasing number of ways to monetize the traffic it directs from its home screen: drive users to The Roku Channel (which monetizes through advertising), drive to its subscription services, Frndly and Howdy, drive to third-party apps where it may or may not take a cut of ads and/or subscription fees and drive transactional pay-per-view. While it is still very early days for Roku’s subscription push, we believe diversifying its revenue streams will make for a more compelling long-term investment story to investors.”
For more information or to sign up, visit howdy.tv.
