American streaming giant, Roku, is reportedly set to open a technical and engineering operation in Manchester, UK. According to the independent north-of-England publisher and events company, Prolific North, there are unconfirmed reports that Roku will be taking up office space in the city’s Bruntwood Circle Square.
There has been no official comment from the company, although it is evidently recruiting for Manchester-based engineering roles on platforms such as LinkedIn. In June, it hired a senior technical recruiter based in Manchester who previously worked for Google Cloud and AWS.
We will have more on this story as it develops.
Roku was the subject of rumoured interest from Comcast earlier this year, as the latter considered its options to establish itself in the streaming market. The Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was exploring options after the muted performance of its Peacock streaming service launch in the US.
Roku and ViacomCBS were touted as potential options, although analysts warned any acquisition would be “fraught with regulatory challenges”, and cost Comcast a significant amount. ViacomCBS has a market value of $27.2 billion, while Roku is worth $55.8 billion.
