Roku is widely regarded as one of the most affordable media hardware companies around, known for cheap and cheerful streaming sticks like the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. However, its hardware is about to get a lot more expensive, with the company jacking up its prices by as much as 60% on some devices.
That’s according to reports by Ars Technica and The Desk, which said that Roku has updated the prices for most of its streaming devices on its U.S. website, though it’s currently still selling them at the old prices under temporary “sale” offers. But it seems that this sale offer won’t last for long, so we can expect the new prices to kick in any day now.
It’s bad news for anyone in the market for a cheap streaming stick. The Roku Streaming Stick, which is the company’s most basic offering, was previously listed at just $29.99 (around £22.30), but has now been bumped up to $39.99 instead. Meanwhile, the Streaming Stick Plus has risen from $39.99 to $59.99, while the Streaming Stick 4K has gone up from $49.99 to a staggering $79.99, representing a 60% jump. There’s also the Roku Ultra Box, which is the company’s most premium streaming device, which used to cost $99.99 and is now listed at $149.99.
While Roku hasn’t officially commented on the price hikes, a spokesperson for the company told The Desk that the decision was taken due to the ongoing global memory crunch, which is blamed firmly on the AI industry. Those AI models run on expensive servers that require lots of memory, and that means server makers have been gobbling up all of the memory chips they can get their hands on, driving up prices for everyone else. That’s why all kinds of electronics devices, ranging from smartphones to consoles to PCs are getting more expensive.
For now, it’s only Roku’s U.S. website that shows higher prices, but if the company is asking for more money in its biggest market, it seems likely that it will inevitably do the same in other markets, including the U.K., in the not too distant future. But so far, this side of the Atlantic has been spared.
What’s interesting is that no one had really predicted this. The TV industry has so far proven immune to the price increases driven by the global memory crunch elsewhere. Earlier this year, Samsung warned that TV prices could rise in 2026 as a result of the “RAMageddon,” but that hasn’t happened, and if anything, TV prices have actually gotten cheaper, on average. The reason is that the TV industry is a lot less dependent on hardware sales than it used to be, because most brands have realized that they can actually make far more money by milking their customers for data to show them targeted ads. Roku, in fact, has been one of the most enthusiastic in this regard, and has often been criticised for its ad-heavy TV software. So the decision to bump up its prices at a time when its ad revenues should be soaring is certainly an interesting one, to say the least.
Predictably, Roku’s decision has not been well received, but some of the complaints online do suggest why it may think it can get away with this. For when it comes to prices, nobody can beat Roku in terms of streaming device affordability. It’s basically the cheapest there is. Or was. As one Redditor stated, “it’s hard to find another affordable option.” While competitors do exist, like Google’s TV Streamer, Apple’s Apple TV 4K and Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks, they’re not any cheaper.
