Roku TV and streaming stick owners in the U.K. can now access 40 live TV channels entirely for free, in what is one of the company’s biggest expansions since it first penetrated the British TV market.
The new channels are all “FAST”, or free ad-supported streaming channels, which provide content 24 hours a day, seven days a week at no extra cost to users, and they’ll be accessible on every Roku device, including its TVs and streaming dongles and boxes.
FAST TV channels have become increasingly popular with TV platforms, and they can be found on Google TV, Android TV, Samsung’s Tizen OS and LG’s webOS. Although they’re streamed over the net instead of being delivered via an aerial like traditional broadcasts, they’re more like the TV channels of yesteryear, as users can’t choose what specific programme to watch.
However, the channels are all built around specific themes or genres, so you’ll have an idea of what to expect. Of course, the fact they’re ad supported means you’ll have to tolerate advertisements now and again.
The company hasn’t revealed the full list of new channels, but it did talk about some of them – presumably, the better ones. They include PGA TOUR, which as the name suggests, is all about non-stop golf coverage. There’s also a channel called This Old House, which is for home improvement content, and Unsolved Mysteries, which shows endless true crime documentaries and similar content. NatureTime is for wildlife documentaries, and Love Pets is all about pet animals.
“With the launch of our first FAST channels in the U.K. this October, we’re giving viewers more choice than ever before,” said Roku’s U.K. Country Manager Richard Halton. “From iconic series and films to new favourites and niche genres, [they’re all available] for free.”
With any luck, U.K. viewers may also get access to some of the better Roku Channels that are currently available in the U.S., including those that are dedicated to specific shows – like Hell’s Kitchen, a must have for Gordon Ramsey fans. U.S. viewers also get dedicated science fiction, reality TV and movie channels, so we might be something similar for us Brits.
Roku said the new channels can be accessed in two ways – either through the new Roku Channel app, which shows up in your home screen alongside streaming apps like Netflix, and also in the new Live TV Zone that has come to the Roku OS as part of this update.
The Live TV guide has been available in the U.S. for several years already, so the company has been slow in getting it out to U.K. viewers, most likely because of the hassles of licensing all of that free content, which is never an easy business.
Users will be able to find the Live TV guide in the left-hand navigation menu, and it looks much like a traditional TV guide, which many may appreciate as it can make it easier to find something to watch. It shows what’s currently playing across all 40 channels, Roku said.
The Live TV guide is similar to what’s available on Amazon’s Fire TV, where there is a “Live” tab that lists the available free channels on that platform. For a long time, Fire TV’s Live tab wasn’t that great, mostly due to the lack of anything decent to watch, but earlier this year it added all of the BBC’s channels. The U.K.’s other major broadcasters, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, were all added in the last year.
In the U.S., Roku’s Live TV guide provides access to quite a few different channels, including services like Hulu, YouTube TV and fuboTV, as well as that country’s much longer list of free FAST channels. But it’s not clear yet if Roku’s U.K. version will list programmes from the likes of BBC or ITV. Hopefully it will, because having a single place to access all of your live content would make the navigation experience much easier, saving users from the hassle of jumping between different apps like the BBC iPlayer and ITVx.
In addition, a live TV guide is only as good as the content available through it, and the sad reality is that FAST channels aren’t always that exciting. For the most part, the content available on them tends to be extremely old, or obscure, or both, though you may find some hidden gems if you look closely enough.
Unfortunately, the channels listed by Roku can’t exactly be described as “must-haves”, unless you happen to be an extremely enthusiastic golf fan or absolutely love your true crime. Therefore, if the Live TV guide only includes Roku’s channels, it’s unlikely to become everybody’s go-to destination for content. That said, free is free, and with any luck it’s just the start of more free things to come for Roku TV.
