American streaming giant Roku recently opened its new Manchester office. One of the Directors steering the direction of the new base details why it was an “easy decision” to set up in the city and how recruiting top talent is key to building out a “foundation” in the region.
The streaming platform, founded by Manchester-born Anthony Wood in 2002, serves around 60 million households and is America’s number one TV streaming platform by the hours streamed, according to a study by Hypothesis Group.
The company opened its new Manchester office in February, based at Bruntwood SciTech’s No.1 Circle Square, which has the capacity to take up to 500 staff.
“We want to go fast, we want to grow and be successful, but we’ve got to do it in the right way to make sure that it’s a sustainable pace and that we do it in the right way,” Alastair McGeoch, Director of Software Engineering at Roku, told Prolific North.
As Roku celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, he explained how the company “pioneered streaming to the TV” and shipped the first Roku player in 2008 which was the “first device to stream Netflix in the world”.
The company is initially recruiting for more than 50 software engineering roles, with a vision to increase the size of its Manchester team over the next four years.
McGeoch is heading up the new Roku office in Manchester and is currently building out the new teams alongside his colleague, and fellow Director of Software Engineering, Michael Hartley.
He will also be responsible for coordinating the recruitment for other Roku teams who are hiring Manchester-based staff.
Roku’s Manchester office is the company’s fourth location in the UK alongside offices in London, Cambridge and Cardiff.
“We considered a number of options as part of that strategic process.
“When we looked at Manchester, if you look at the engineering history that’s in the city and the cultural impact that the city has had across the world as well in terms of audio, TV, music, it was just the natural fit for us as an organisation for what we wanted to do,” he said.
Pointing to Roku’s founder, who launched the company on the “belief that all TV will be streamed”, he highlighted how TV streaming is viewed as a “global phenomenon – but that didn’t happen overnight”.
“We are the number one streaming provider in the US. We have the ambition and want to be the TV streaming platform that connects the entire TV ecosystem around the world.
“Strategically in order for us to continue to execute our vision to be that ecosystem globally, then we need to have the best talent that we can get to help us achieve that,” he explained.
