Roku (/ˈroʊkuː/ ROH-koo) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from various online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduced in May 2008. Roku devices have been considered influential on the digital media player market, helping to popularize the concept of low-cost, small-form-factor set-top boxes for over-the-top media consumption. Roku has also licensed its platform as middleware for smart TVs.