While Roku is perhaps best known as the company behind the popular streaming stick and smart TV platform, it also has its own streaming service which is known as The Roku Channel. And no, before you ask, it's not just one channel.
The Roku Channel is one of the best free streaming services on the market right now, for reasons that you'll shortly be learning, and it's remained a popular option for money-saving streamers ever since it launched in 2017.
In the near-decade since then The Roku Channel has grown a lot, adding premium subscriptions, offering own-brand Roku Originals and releasing the library of the rapidly-defunct Quibi streaming service. It's even released award-winning movies.
Which brings us to where we are today. The Roku Channel continues to be great — and 100 percent affordable — way to watch all sorts of shows and movies without spending a dime.
Here's everything else you need to know about The Roku Channel:
What can you watch on The Roku Channel?
The question of what you can watch on The Roku Channel is a broad one, because the exact line-up depends on where you live.
One of the bigger draws to The Roku Channel nowadays is its growing library of Originals: movies and shows made by and for Roku. The best-known example of this is award-winning Al Yankovic biopic Weird starring Daniel Radcliffe but there are a few more movies and TV shows. Perhaps the most prolific kind of content is cooking shows and talk shows as there's a long list of those.
The Roku Channel also has a fairly robust library of third-party content, mainly older movies though with some big recent ones too, and it has a decent selection of TV shows too.
In certain regions like the US, there's also live TV. There are more than 350 channels that are live (as in right now) and linear (as in a channel that shows things and everyone sees them at the same time). Those include news and sports, like TYT Go, Newsy, Newsmax TV, Stadium, Fubo Sports Network, People TV, Cheddar News, and so on.
How much does The Roku Channel cost?
The Roku Channel is free to watch, thanks to all the advertising within shows and movies. You pay for your time watching advertising, of course.
But other than that, the shows and movies you see on the non-premium side of the shop are free.
Despite what you may think, you don't need to buy a Roku Player to use the company's free streaming channel. But they have it pre-installed making it easy to use.
What can you watch The Roku Channel on?
When it comes to actually watching The Roku Channel, you've got a ton of options. Most obvious are Roku players themselves, as well as Roku TV. These all have The Roku Channel pre-installed which saves you from downloading it yourself.
You're also able to get The Roku Channel on Amazon Fire TV, and on select Samsung Smart TVs. The Roku Channel also is available in a standard web browser at TheRokuChannel.com, but only in certain regions.
The Roku Channel also is available as a standalone app for iOS and for Android. That allows you to install it on an iPhone or iPad, and on pretty much any Android device. Note that if this is the route you take and you want to take advantage of the premium subscriptions via The Roku Channel (more on that below), you'll need to sign up from an actual Roku device, or from TheRokuChannel.com.
What premium options does The Roku Channel have?
You've got a number of paid subscriptions available within The Roku Channel. You give Roku your payment information, then sign up, and it handles all the billing.
Premium options on The Roku Channel include EPIX, AMC+ (which is itself an amalgamation AMC, Shudder, Sundance Now and IFC Films Unlimited), STARZ, BET+, Cinemax, Showtime, Noggin, The Great Sources Signature Collection, UP Faith & Family, Lifetime Movie Club, Fox Nation, Acorn TV, ALLBLK, Hallmark Movies Now, History Vault, A&E Crime Central, CuriosityStream, Pantaya, Sundance Now, True Royalty, IFC Films Unlimited, and more.
The exact selection will depend on your region, and some major streaming services are also included like Apple TV Plus.
Premium subscriptions carry over from one method of watching The Roku Channel to another, so you don't have to pay multiple times. You just have to use Roku or The Roku Channel to watch. That's the extent of the portability, though. If you sign up through The Roku Channel you'll have to watch from within The Roku Channel.
One more major caveat here — you can't do premium subscriptions via The Roku Channel on Samsung TVs, or on Amazon Fire TV.
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