Roku to make set-top box open source

Roku executives recently announced they will make the company’s sub-$100 Roku Netflix player open source, allowing developers to create software for the device. As per a Wednesday report, Roku CEO Anthony Wood made the pledge, which would see the company release the software development kit in the next few months. This will allow developers to publish any channel, while users could even surf the Internet via their existing devices, no longer limiting them to content from Netflix.

Wood went on to say the move will not affect Roku’s relationship with Netflix, which charges users on a monthly basis to download content, as Roku’s revenue comes from hardware sales and the company made it clear it would pursue partnerships with other content providers from the start.

Netflix itself on Tuesday announced it would begin offering CBS and Disney programming to subscribers.

Filed under: gadgets, developer
Other story tags: Netflix, Roku