Roku gets investment from BSkyB and News Corp

Roku, the over-the-top TV streaming device provider, has received US$45 million (€37 million) of investment from companies including UK pay TV operator BSkyB and News Corp. Other investors include Menlo Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners.

Sky has invested US$10 million in the company. Its new OTT platform Now TV will soon be available on Roku devices in the UK. Under the terms of the deal, Sky has the option to rebrand and distribute versions of Roku’s devices in the future.

Roku said it would use the new capital to build further brand awareness through advertising, develop new international markets and increase engineering and production to support sales growth of both hardware and digital media services on the platform including advertising, games, transactional and pay-per-view video as well as content packages.

Roku launched in the UK in February and currently offers over 150 channels, including Netflix, iPlayer and Crackle.