Roku launches new SVOD platform: HOWDY

15 August 2025 - Roku, a household name in the U.S. streaming hardware space, is making a notable content play with the launch of Howdy, a new subscription-based streaming channel (SVOD). While Roku is already a major force in AVOD via The Roku Channel, this move signals their growing appetite for exclusive content and controlled-window licensing. That’s a significant development, especially for the indie sector.

In the wake of consolidation among the major streamers — notably Paramount’s realignment post-Skydance and Max’s pivot toward franchise content — Pay 1 deals have become increasingly scarce. Where Netflix and Hulu once served as robust SVOD landing zones for indie titles, their pipelines are now more restrictive, genre-specific, and talent-sensitive.

Howdy represents a potential opening — an emerging buyer in a market that’s been mostly static for the past 12–18 months. While details around content strategy and budget scale are still limited, we’ve seen this pattern before: new platforms overpay early to build libraries, then tighten later. For producers with commercially viable content and recognizable faces (even Tier B or C), this could be a valuable window — but it’s a short one.