The Education of Roku’s Anthony Wood

For years, Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood ran the streaming device maker with some strict rules. He wouldn’t allow advertisements on the Roku home screen—the first thing its viewers see when they switch on their TV—for anything besides other entertainment companies. He also wouldn’t allow the home screen to promote individual shows, preferring icons of streaming apps.

But as Roku’s once-explosive growth has slowed and the streaming TV market has matured, Wood has relaxed those strictures. Roku now permits all kinds of ads on its home screen. It even recently allowed something that would have once been unthinkable: cruise line Carnival Cruises ran an ad that took over the entire Roku home screen, Wood told investors at a conference in March.