Roku touts the following benefits in its blog post this week:
Free for all users: The Roku Channel will continue to include thousands of free, ad-supported titles available without a subscription and is available on a range of devices; users do not need any subscriptions or memberships in order to access quality free, ad-supported contentWide variety of subscription partners: Premium Subscription partners at launch include SHOWTIME, Starz, EPIX, Baeble Music, CollegeHumor’s DROPOUT, CuriosityStream, FitFusion, The Great Courses Signature Collection, Hopster, Magnolia Selects presented by Magnolia Pictures, MHz Choice, NOGGIN, Smithsonian Channel Plus, Tastemade, Viewster Anime and moreOne-click subscriptions: Customers will be able to start a free trial or subscribe to new Premium Subscriptions with one click using their existing Roku account information once they visit the subscription pageFree trials: All premium content can be trialed for at least seven daysTrial reminders: A reminder will be sent before each free trial expires and billing startsSingle bill: Subscriptions will be managed directly from my.roku.com. Customers will receive one monthly bill for all premium subscriptions on The Roku Channel
Along with the launch of premium channel subscriptions, the Roku Channel’s mobile app is getting an update to support video playback. You can watch the free Roku content as well as services you are subscribed to on your phone or tablet. The company announced the web-based version of The Roku Channel last year and you will be able to watch all the content together via your browser, too. The premium subscriptions will begin rolling out to select Roku device later this month and the app update will be a phased rollout to iOS and Android devices around the same time.
