The Roku Channel is an American

over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...

video streaming service Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

owned and operated by

Roku, Inc. Roku, Inc. ( ) is an American publicly traded company based in San Jose, California, that manufactures a variety of digital media players for video streaming. Roku has an advertising business and also licenses its hardware and software to othe ...

, which launched in September 2017.

History

In September 2017,

launched a free, ad-supported streaming channel for its

digital media players A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integr ...

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

. The service has licensing deals for content with

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

, and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, and also has content from existing Roku channel partners American Classics,

FilmRise FilmRise is a New York City–based film and television studio and streaming network, which has become one of the largest independent providers of content to ad-supported streaming (AVOD) platforms, in addition to providing the largest free direc ...

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); V ...

's Nosey,

OVGuide OVGuide was a website aggregator which allowed users to find online video content. The company was acquired by FOTV Media Networks Inc. for over $10M in 2016. -OVGuide is no longer available- Included sites Sites are submitted by users and sele ...

Popcornflix Popcornflix LLC is a website and over-the-top (OTT) service offering free ad-supported streaming video of feature-length movies and webisodes and owned by the Screen Media Ventures subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Histor ...

Vidmark Trimark Pictures was an American production company that specialized in the production and distribution of television and home video motion pictures. The company was formed in 1984 by Mark Amin as Vidmark Entertainment with Vidmark Inc. (later T ...

, and YuYu. On August 8, 2018, The Roku Channel became available on the web as a standalone website. Originally only available in the United States, it launched in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2020, with a different selection of movies and TV shows. On January 8, 2021, Roku announced that it had acquired the original content library of the defunct mobile video service

Quibi Quibi ( ) was a short-lived American short-form streaming platform that generated content for viewing on mobile devices. It was founded in Los Angeles in August 2018 as NewTV by Jeffrey Katzenberg and was led by Meg Whitman, its CEO. The servic ...

for an undisclosed amount, reported to be around $100 million. The content was rebranded as Roku Originals. The service was released in Mexico on October 13, 2022.

Content

As of January 2021, the service has over 40,000 movies and TV shows. Through the acquisition of Quibi's original content library, an additional 75 shows and documentaries are available exclusively on the service as Roku Originals.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roku Channel, The Internet television streaming services Subscription video streaming services Internet properties established in 2017 Internet television channels