Key Takeaways
- Roku Sports Channel launches August 12th, free for all users
- Offering 24/7 sports coverage including MLB, Formula E, talk shows and more
- Complementing existing sports subscriptions and aiming to simplify the sports streaming environment
Roku has announced its latest products. Sports provision This ad-supported channel is available on Roku Sports Channel. Free for Roku users It will be released on August 12th.
The streaming giant has beefed up its sports coverage over the past few years through partnerships with major networks like NBC, ESPN and others through its Roku Sports experience. But these additional channels have typically been their own offerings. Subscription Price To access it, the Roku Sports Channel allows you to stream all major sports programming owned and licensed by Roku for free.
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Sports 24 hours
New Sports Channels on Roku
Starting on Monday, August 12, all Roku users will have access to a brand new FAST channel called the Roku Sports Channel, a 24/7 streaming channel featuring all the most popular sporting events and sports-related coverage, which will be free with ads for all Roku users.
Sports channel highlights include live MLB games, BLB Sunday Leadoff, Formula E racing, and acclaimed sports talk shows like The Rich Eisen Show and GMFB: Overtime. Roku’s original content will fill the gaps with coverage of other professional leagues in the form of NFL Draft: The Pick Is In, WWE:Next Gen, Fight Inc: Inside the UFC, and more.
Partners announced for the channel include boxing and professional poker.
Joe Franzetta, head of sports for Roku Media, describes the Roku Sports Channel as “a curated, always-on channel that introduces viewers to a variety of premium sports content available for free on The Roku Channel. The Roku Sports Channel is an exciting addition to our expanding sports offering.” Roku also promises to expand the channel’s coverage with new exclusive content such as the NBA G League and the Roku-produced WNBA documentary “Renee Montgomery: A Radical Act.”
Roku appears to see a gap in the sports streaming market that it can fill with its service. “We knew that sports gets more fragmented from week to week, month to month, with different rights holders changing, different distribution points for different leagues,” Drew Adams, Roku’s director of sports products, told Awful Announcing last month. “So when we looked at where Roku could add value, that was an area where we thought, ‘We can really help you. We can help you by making it easier for you to find your sports content all in one place.'”
Streaming services have made it incredibly complicated to figure out what content is available where, so a unified free service that encompasses all sports content could be the best solution.
The Roku Sports Channel does not replace any existing sports channels on the service — all of those separate subscriptions and channels will continue to be supported and function as usual.
When it launches on August 12, the Roku Sports Channel will be available to stream for free on any Roku streaming device, the Roku app or the official Roku website.
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