In an interview with The Associated Press, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said that DVD players and cable boxes are going to disappear as all TV in the future will be streamed.
In addition, Wood shrugged off competition from rival companies Apple, Amazon and Google, who have all taken great strides in developing their streaming services in response to Roku's success.
Wood's career in the TV industry began as the inventor of one of the first digital recorders for video and founded ReplayTV, which is a company similar to and upstaged by TiVo.
Wood continues his presence in the industry with Roku, which successfully launched its first streaming device six years ago. Since then, the company has sold over 8 million streaming devices to play Internet video on the TV. Roku offers around 15,000 streaming channels, which includes Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
The future of TV will most likely include Roku, and Wood believes that he knows right where TV is headed.
"To me, it's pretty clear that all TV is going to be streamed. It's either going to be streamed to a smart TV, a gaming console or a streaming player. That's the way people are going to watch TV. Things like DVD players are going to go away. Cable boxes are obviously going away, too. DVRs are just a stepping stone technology. When everything is on demand, you won't have to record anything anymore so that's going to disappear," Wood said.
"I don't think many people will be using DVRs six years from now," Wood also said.
Wood adds that the best advantage of streaming TV is that customers are given many choices with the numerous kinds of content that is accessible. Wood also said that streaming TV works hand in hand most of the time with a cable service, with 60 percent of Roku streaming TV users also having a cable service.
When asked if Wood is worried about Apple, Amazon and Google increasing their stamp in the industry, Wood said that whenever these three giants release a major announcement, sales for Roku only grow stronger, and it only keeps getting better as excitement for streaming TV grows.
The success of Roku in its early years prompted Apple to begin taking its video streaming player seriously, and now the company has sold over 20 million Apple TV streaming devices, with the business generating over $1 billion in revenue for Apple per year. Google and Amazon have also released their own video streaming devices in the past year in a bid to begin expansion into the industry.
Around 35 percent of all households in the U.S. have Internet-connected TVs, which is a figure that will only continue to grow as smart TV and Internet streaming technologies develop, with Roku at the forefront of this fledgling industry.
