Rokuhas announced the latest addition to itssports offeringswith the Roku Sports Channel. This ad-supported channel will befree for Roku userswhen it launches on August 12.
The streaming giant has been bolstering its sports coverage over the past few years through partnerships with major networks such as NBC, ESPN, and more through the Roku Sports experience. However, these extra channels typically have their ownsubscription pricesto access. The Roku Sports Channel will stream all major sports programs that Roku owns and licenses for free.
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Sports 24/7
Roku’s new Sports Channel
Launching on Monday, August 12 all Roku users will be able to access the newest FAST channel called Roku Sports Channel. This will be a 24/7 streaming channel that features all the most popular sporting events and sports-related coverage. It will be ad-supported and free to all Roku users.
Highlights of the Sports Channel include live MLB games and BLB Sunday Leadoff, Formula E races, and highly acclaimed sports talk shows such as The Rich Eisen Show and GMFB: Overtime. Roku original content will fill in the gaps with coverage of other professional leagues in the form of NFL Draft: The Pick Is In, WWE:Next Gen, and Fight Inc: Inside the UFC.
Announced partners for the channel include boxing and professional poker.
Head of Sports at Roku Media Joe Franzetta describes Roku Sports Channel as “A curated always-on channel that leads our viewer through the wide variety of premium sports content available for free on The Roku Channel, Roku Sports Channel is an exciting addition to our expanding sports offering.” Roku also commits to expanding the channel’s coverage with new exclusive content such as NBA G-League and a Roku-produced WNBA documentary titled Renee Montgomery: A Radical Act.
Roku appears to see a gap in the sports streaming market it can fill with this service. As Roku’s director of product for sports Drew Adams said to Awful Announcing just last month “We understood that sports were continuing to fragment week by week, month, month by month, with different rights holders coming into play or leagues with different distribution points. So when we evaluated where Roku could add value here, that was one area where we said ‘Well, we can really help, right? We can help the user here by making it easy for them to find sports content all in one place.'”
Streaming services have become quite complex in knowing which content is available where, so a unified and free service that contains all sports content could be a perfect solution.
The Roku Sports Channel will not replace the existing sports channels on the service. All these individual subscriptions and channels will still be supported and function as normal.
You will be able to stream the Roku Sports Channel for free when it launches on August 12 with any Roku streaming device, the Roku app, or via the official Roku website.
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