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Roku continued to see operating losses balloon in the fourth quarter to 249.9 million, even as net revenue for the quarter reached 867.1 million and total active accounts crossed 70 million users.

The operating losses represent a 1,270 percent decline compared to the previous year, when Roku reported operating income at 21.4 million during the holiday season. Despite the growing losses, Roku stock surged in after-hours trading by roughly 10 percent due to the company’s better-than-expected revenue performance, which analysts had expected to land closer to 803 million.

Total streaming hours for the quarter rose to 23.9 billion hours, a 23 percent year-over-year increase. Roku’s platform business continued to drive the majority of revenue while the device business — impacted by slower holiday sales — saw an 18 percent decline from the previous year.

For the current first quarter, Roku said it expects the net losses to sustain but shrink to 205 million. Total net revenue is expected to reach 700 million...

Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Impact, an online professional network for film and TV crews, has closed 15 million in series B funding.

Impact, led by CEO Tyler Mitchel, will expand its product and services with new funding led by Shasta Ventures.

The new funding will be used to add talent to the existing product and engineering teams that will enhance the company’s tools that facilitate collaboration among productions and crews. This seamless communication aims to connect people in the industry with talent faster and prioritizes inclusion.

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The funding was led by Shasta Ventures with participation from Benchmark and strategic investors including Skydance, Riviera Partners, Snap chairman Michael Lynton, Working Title Films producer and co-chairman Eric Fellner and “Billions” creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien alongside Roku CEO Anthony Wood. As a result of the round, Jason Pressman,...

Impact, the LinkedIn-like professional network for the entertainment biz founded by filmmakers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, raised 15 million in Series B funding.

The L.A.-based company, founded in 2020, has now landed more than 21 million in total funding. The Series B round was led by venture-capital firm Shasta Ventures with participation from Silicon Valley Vc firm Benchmark alongside strategic investors including Skydance, Riviera Partners, Michael Lynton (chairman of Snap and former chairman/CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment), Eric Fellner (producer and co-chairman of Working Title Films), Brian Koppelman and David Levien (creators of “Billions”) and Roku founder/CEO Anthony Wood.

Impact provides professional-networking tools designed to let productions and crews connect and collaborate more easily. The company said it will use the new funding to make hires on its product and engineering teams and to develop and launch new features. Impact was co-founded by Grazer and Howard (who...

Charlie Collier, who oversaw AMC Networks in its “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “The Walking Dead” heyday, is taking his talents to Roku to serve as president of Roku Media. A job description might say he’s bridging the gaps between advertising, content, and consumers across Roku’s streaming platform, including The Roku Channel.

Those who know Collier see it a little differently. “People are going to want to talk to Roku now because they want to talk to Charlie,” said Michael Kassan, a media and advertising consultant and Medialink principal. “Charlie is a star.”

Collier currently leads Fox’s broadcast network, its reality programming, and its studios. He does not oversee the company’s news and sports segments, and streaming service Tubi is still technically run on a day-to-day basis by founder Farhad Massoudi. At Roku, Collier gets to really be the man; the promise of all that oversight,...

Roku’s splashy hire of Charlie Collier, former CEO of Fox Entertainment and president of AMC, has sent a clear signal about the company’s ambition to make more noise with original programming.

The question now among Wall Streeters and industryites: Exactly how noisy will Roku try to get, and at what cost? And what’s a pure-play tech firm doing in the Hollywood sandbox anyway, at a time when other distributors are withdrawing from the pricey content game?

Collier will officially join the fold next month in New York, shortly before the debut of Roku’s biggest original yet, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The 12 million non-biopic, starring Danielle Radcliffe, will land on the Roku Channel on November 4 after a festival run beginning with its well-received world premiere this month in Toronto.

As the new head of Roku Media, Collier is coming in to oversee advertising and programming, and...