Roku needs to drive new accounts, and it seems completely feasible to simply give people a Roku account credit equal to the cost of their hardware if a new account.
ARPU will more than make up for the already negative margin on hardware sales. This will drive account growth. Give away the hardware for new accounts!!!! $20 to $40 for a stick?? It is a no-brainer! Throw some simple catches to the deal...credit is added to account after 2 months of a new account? 50% credit for any movie or subscription cost as incurred? Easy to find a sensible and minimal cash flow impact method of providing such a credit. Very short-term hit to ARPU, and a long-term boon!! Clearly account growth is critical here for international expansion. Please do it!!
