“Streaming device maker Roku Inc. on Wednesday said it has launched its own channel on the Roku platform,” Trey Williams reports for MarketWatch. “Roku has capitalized on the rise of cord-cutting and an intensifying streaming TV landscape. The company filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, seeking $100 million in funding. In July, the company said it had reached 15 million monthly active accounts.”
“Roku’s new streaming channel will feature a collection of Hollywood films with no subscription, fee or logins required,” Williams reports. “Roku plans to make its money with an ad-supported model, much like watching a movie on TNT. But Roku says it plans to have, on average, about half of the ads per programming hour compared with traditional TV.”
“In the company’s news release announcing the new channel, it highlighted ‘Ali,’ ‘The Karate Kid’ and ‘Legally Blonde’ as featured films,” Williams reports. “Roku said the channel will also feature content from some of its publishing partners such as American Classics, FilmRise and Popcornflix.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: At any given time, literally tens of people will be watching that Roku channel comprised of old movies and filler content peppered with half the commercial interruptions of TNT.
Hopefully, the newly- and finally-serious Apple is about to clean out and clean up this market of myriad random streaming sticks and boxes. The average consumer is crying out for a real cord-cutting solution they can understand and actually use.
“Everybody’s tryin’ to get into the act.”
This is why I do not go to the CBS full access model
You know it comes with commercial free streaming.
Roku is great, I have one on every TV in my house. Simple interface and it just works.
The forgot to mention that the only film they will play over an over in a loop is “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.” (It’s public domain.)