Streaming giant Roku has opened a base in central Manchester.
Roku is America’s most popular TV streaming platform by hours streamed, serving more than 56 million active accounts worldwide.
Its CEO Anthony Wood was born in Manchester. The office, its fourth in the UK, follows London, Cambridge and Cardiff.
Located in Bruntwood SciTech’s No.1 Circle Square off Oxford Road, Roku’s Manchester team will now be recruiting for 50+ engineering roles before the end of 2022, as well as offering three-month paid internships to the region’s budding software engineers.
The strategic move to the northern tech capital positions Roku next to the University of Manchester.
The initial phase of recruitment will focus on product engineers who will work with Roku TV brand partners on developing Roku TV models, powered by the Roku OS.
Currently, Roku TV models are available in the UK from brands like TCL and Hisense, while in the US Roku has been the No.1 selling smart TV operating system for the last two years.
“Roku was founded on the belief that all TV will be streamed. We are looking for the right talent to continue to change how the world watches television,” said Alastair McGeoch, director of software engineering.
“Manchester is a city steeped in engineering history and famed for its cultural impact on the world, so it is a natural fit for us. In Manchester, we will primarily focus on recruiting software engineering roles in 2022, with the ambition to increase the size of our team there in the next four years.
“Manchester is Roku’s fourth UK office, following London, Cambridge and Cardiff and has an incredible talent pool. Roku is proud to be joining the city’s newest neighbourhood and growing tech sector.”
Tim Newns, chief executive of MIDAS, Greater Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency, said: “It is incredibly exciting to have one of the world’s leading content streaming technology companies investing at such scale in Manchester.
“They join a wider software supply chain around content streaming that includes the likes of BBC iPlayer and Disney Streaming Services (formerly Cake Solutions) which makes this a growing area of specialism for the city region and at a time of extreme growth in that sector globally.
“We’re looking forward to seeing how Roku can leverage Greater Manchester’s innovation strengths in the technology and media sectors, alongside the existing ecosystem and academia, to take their product offering on to the next level.”