Free Roku Channel Streaming Services now live on the web

It was recently announced that The Roku Channel, with free ad-supported streaming services, will now be available on the web for viewing on non-Roku devices such as tablets, smartphones, and PCs for the first time. Earlier to this, the users could only access the channel if they had a Roku TV or their streaming devices.

In addition to this, they are also updating the navigation on their own devices to inculcate a new feature known as “Featured Free”. This will help to directly point the users with free content from several other apps as well. The only limitation is your region. For now, it is available only for the users in the US.  

A Brief Overview

If we really consider its popularity, Roku has never really utilized its platform to promote its own content. Despite acquiring a major portion of the internet video streaming device market, it has always leveraged its channel to be an open floor for all, unlike how Amazon has been pushing its Prime Video shows to its Fire TV customers. However, after licensing deals with studios like Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, and Sony Pictures Entertainment; Roku itself got colonized with their videos. As a result, this further boosted Roku’s strength as a platform by attracting new and free content from its existing channel partners like Popcornflix, FilmRise, Vidmark, and Nosey.

Also Read How To Manage Channel Subscriptions On Roku

The Roku’s in-house Ad sales team is responsible for selling and monetizing the content through advertising, with some amount of portion credited to the partners as well. The company has set its goal to place the ads smartly and not to swamp the viewers with the same content repeatedly.

As the channel is now expanding at a good rate through the web and other TV platforms, Roku is having a full possibility to enhance its advertising business.

The Features

The ‘Featured Free’ section will include a variety of famous free content from the channel partners. The shows will encompass a thumbnail image and will be identified by their name, however, it will not reflect which channel partner they are coming from.

This section will display the trending episodes of top network shows, hit movies, and classic series. As per the reports, Roku is also expected to bring in a number of paid subscription services in the same section alone in order to make it simpler for the users to enroll for the paid channels without having to look and search tediously for the right app.

Also Read Roku Tips And Tricks You Are Probably Not Using

These latest features are also a good indication of Roku’s shift from being fully involved in device sales to a transfiguration towards services and as for now, particularly ad-supported services.

What are your thoughts on The Roku Channel’s free streaming services? Write it down in the comment section below!