The news: At CES 2026, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said the company plans to take its ad-free service, Howdy, beyond Roku devices and distribute it “everywhere,” per TechCrunch.
The expansion is a shift from platform-locked channels to a standalone streaming brand that can live on mobile, web, and rival connected TVs (CTVs) beyond Roku’s ecosystem as it loses share of voice (SOV) to Apple and Samsung.
Howdy launched in August as an ad-free, library-content service priced at $2.99 per month, a departure from major streamers who are raising prices and increasing ad loads, leaving a gap at the low end of the market.
- Wood framed Howdy as a response to inflationary pressure across streaming subscriptions and ad-supported tiers.
- He believes the “cheap and no ads” segment (early Netflix, Hulu Plus) has effectively disappeared and is now underserved.