Roku, Inc. today announced the launch of “The Roku Channel,” a new Roku streaming service on the Roku platform specifically dedicated to giving customers free access to a collection of top films and more. Customers will enjoy award winners and big screen classics, whenever they want at no cost. There are no subscriptions, fees or logins required to access The Roku Channel – it is ad-supported and expected to have, on average, approximately half the advertising per programming hour as compared to traditional ad-supported linear TV.
“With The Roku Channel, we’re responding to consumer demand and helping content publishers deliver content through a new experience that makes finding free entertainment easy for our customers.”
“We’re always looking for ways to add value and make TV better for our customers,” said Rob Holmes, Vice President of Programming at Roku. “With The Roku Channel, we’re responding to consumer demand and helping content publishers deliver content through a new experience that makes finding free entertainment easy for our customers.”
The Roku Channel will feature quality films such as Ali, The Karate Kid, Legally Blonde, and many others from leading studios including Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Brothers among others. The Roku Channel will also help existing channel publishers drive additional viewership of their content on the Roku platform. Publishers participating include American Classics, Fandor, FilmRise, Nosey, OVGuide, Popcornflix, Vidmark, and YuYu; others are expected to be added over time.
“There is a tremendous opportunity for our content to be viewed on the Roku platform,” said Danny Fisher, Chief Executive Officer at FilmRise. “Now with The Roku Channel launch, Roku is offering its customers even greater value by giving them free content while enabling publishers like us to benefit from simple discovery that drives greater engagement.”
Currently, the Roku platform in the U.S. offers a collection of more than 5,000 channels with access to 500,000 movies and TV episodes. Additionally, users can easily search and find content from more than 500 channels with unbiased results sorted by price.
The Roku Channel will be available through a phased roll out over the coming weeks. Once available for their device, customers can easily add the channel from the Roku Channel Store and begin using it for free.
