Roku makes some of our favorite streaming devices, and one of the reasons is the sheer amount of streaming services — Roku calls them “channels” — available on those devices. This includes a fair number of services like Sony Crackle, Pluto TV, and Tubi that let you watch movies and TV shows absolutely free of charge. The only problem is that it can often be difficult finding what you want to watch without browsing through all of the various services. Fortunately, that is changing.
On Wednesday, August 8, Roku announced a new addition to the home screen on Roku streaming devices and Roku TVs: The “Featured Free” section. As the name implies, this provides users with direct links to free movies and TV shows found on the channels mentioned above, but also plenty more including ABC, The CW, CW Seed, Fox, Freeform, and Roku’s own The Roku Channel. This section will include the latest in-season episodes of popular series, as well as full-season catch-ups of previous seasons.
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Speaking of The Roku Channel, you’ll soon be able to watch this regardless of whether or not you even own any Roku hardware as starting today, the company is launching The Roku Channel for the Web. All you need to do is sign up for a free Roku account and you’ll be able to watch on devices including PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, smartphones, or tablets. The Roku Channel app has begun to roll out on select Samsung smart TVs starting today, and the company says it will continue to look for ways to bring the service to more hardware.
“Roku is the leading platform for free entertainment and our users love it. We’re delighted to deliver even more value to our customers without subscriptions, complicated logins or fees,” Roku Vice President of Programming and Engagement Rob Holmes said in a statement. “By expanding The Roku Channel to the Web, we’re broadening the access points to high-quality, free streaming entertainment. With Featured Free, we’re making it easy for our customers to see the great, free content already available on the Roku platform in one place, while creating value for our content providers by connecting them with Roku’s growing audience.”
The Featured Free section will begin rolling out in the U.S. today, though this is a phased rollout, so you may not see it right away. Roku says the rollout will happen over “the coming weeks,” so you shouldn’t have too long to wait.
Google TV vs. Roku TV: which is the better streaming OS?
Whether you're looking for a new TV or streaming device, two of the leading smart TV platforms and user interfaces you'll be choosing from are Google TV and Roku TV. Both of these content and navigational platforms are excellent options, with many shared pros between them.
For years, Google has provided the building blocks to smart TV brands from Sony to Hisense under that Android TV banner. Presently, the structural framework of the Android TV system is giving way to an all-new Google operating system known as Google TV. You'll find Google's latest OS running on Sony, Hisense, and TCL TVs, as well as first-party Google devices like the Chromecast with Google TV 4K and Chromecast with Google TV (HD).
Roku and Amazon are so close to making subtitles easy to toggle
The idea that remote controls should include a dedicated button for captions is not, in and of itself, a bad one. In fact, it makes a whole lot of sense, whether the remote belongs to a television or a peripheral like Roku or Amazon Fire TV. We acknowledge the fact that it would add complexity and, possibly, cost to a device. (And that it's relatively easy to just flip 'em on and off inside apps as it is.) But we believe it would be worth it.
We didn’t pick Roku and Amazon Fire TV out of thin air in that previous paragraph. They are the two biggest streaming platforms in the world. And as it turns out, they both have remote controls with user-programmable buttons. While that’s not quite the same thing as what we're imploring the likes of Roku, Amazon, Google, Apple, and others to employ, it’s something that’s available now. (Though the remotes in question aren’t shipped by default with every device — you’ll have to spend more to get them.)
The Roku Channel is now available as a Google TV app
The Roku Channel — one of the major services in the FAST category — is now available as an app on Google TV and Android TV. That's a good thing because The Roku Channel says it already reaches an estimated 100 million people in U.S. households with its wealth of free movies and series.
But it's also still a step removed from competing services like the Paramount-owned Pluto TV, which has direct integration with the Google TV live listings and doesn't require a separate download. Still, it's more free content on a low-cost piece of hardware, and who doesn't like that? The Roku Channel sports more than 350 free live linear channels (as in everyone is watching the same thing at the same time), as well as movies and series, live news, and more.
