Top streaming media device maker Roku announced in September it was launching its own channel featuring free movies and TV shows, including those it licensed itself and those aggregated from other channels across its platform. That rollout has now completed, the company says this morning.
That means the Roku Channel is today available across all of Roku’s current generation devices. The channel establishes Roku as a source of free video itself, similar to Walmart’s Vudu and Sony’s Crackle, instead of just a place to find other streaming services’ offerings.
However, this isn’t the first time Roku has created its own, curated selections of streaming content for its users. Now making its own deals to license content from studios, instead of merely aggregating content from other channels hosted on its platform. Roku says that today you’re able to stream “Mission: Impossible 3,” “Beauty Shop,” “Philadelphia,” and “Zookeeper,” and others.
In addition to helping users find things to watch, the new channel will serve as another means for newly-IPO’d Roku to generate revenue. It will sell ads against the licensed content and participate in a rev-share arrangement with the content it aggregates.
The channel is only available to U.S. users at this time, due to licensing deals.
Source: TechCrunch
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