Roku suffers major outage affecting Netflix, YouTube and other channels
Streaming service Roku got hit with its worst outage to date after a number customers suffered issues watching Netflix, YouTube and other channels for more than five hours.
The issue — which Roku said is now fixed — saw some customers get FBI anti-piracy warnings instead of their chosen programming, as Variety first reported. A Roku spokesperson told TechCrunch that “a small percentage of customers” were affected.
Not cool
what's up with netflix pic.twitter.com/G865jsms8f
— ISMAEL RODRIGUEZ JR (@IRODJR6) May 16, 2018
Once it had restored order, Roku claimed the “technical glitch” could be fixed by manually updating players inside the settings menu, while some channels would require users to log in again.
The issue was a pretty major blow to Roku, which analyst reports suggest remains the top streaming service in the U.S. despite competition from the likes of Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV.
That said, 2018 hasn’t been stellar so far. The company’s most recent financial report in February didn’t go down well with Roku’s share price tumbling 18 percent based on future revenue projections. The share price dropped 3.5 percent over the past day to $34.08, giving the firm a market cap of around $3.4 billion.
There’s more to come from the company this year. It plans to join many of its rivals in the voice computing space by launching smart speakers, smart soundbars, surround sound and multi-home audio systems that use new Roku Connect software to communicate wirelessly and be controlled by voice. The devices will be developed in conjunction with partners via a new Roku licensing program.
