Howdy launches as Roku adds ad-free option

Roku introduces Howdy, a low-cost ad-free option designed to complement premium services and broaden its revenue mix.

Roku launches Howdy ad-free streaming service priced at 2.99 a month

Roku on Aug 5 announced Howdy, an ad-free streaming service priced at 2.99 per month. At launch it offers close to 10 000 hours of content from Lionsgate, Warner Bros Discovery and FilmRise, plus Roku Originals. The service targets a niche that is price conscious and ad sensitive, and Roku says Howdy is meant to complement premium services rather than imitate them. Howdy will appear on Roku home screens and the plan is to expand to mobile and other platforms to reach more viewers.

The move positions Roku as more than a device maker by adding an affordable subscription option. It comes as ad free plans have risen in price across the market, and analysts view Howdy as a way to diversify revenue beyond advertising and monetize the traffic Roku already directs to its platform. Roku reported a growing platform revenue driven by ads and subscriptions and sees Howdy helping to further expand its own ecosystem, including prior acquisitions like Frndly. Analysts expect bundling opportunities with Frndly and other services to be a potential path for higher adoption, even as the catalog remains smaller than rival services.

The strategy hinges on balancing scale with margin. Howdy offers a risk free way for Roku to capture price sensitive viewers and test bundling tactics that could lock users into the platform. If successful, it could push more viewers to stay on the Roku ecosystem even as the company shifts away from relying solely on advertising. The challenge is content breadth and continued monetization of traffic across both ad supported and subscription channels. This move also foreshadows broader bets on how home screen real estate becomes a multi product marketplace rather than a simple storefront.

Highlights

Pricing and bundling will shape Howdy’s reception and Roku’s next moves