The Roku Channel Adds Free Live News

The Roku Channel adds FREE Live News. Roku has announced that its free Roku Channel is adding live, linear news programming from ABC News, Cheddar, and People TV.

What is The Roku Channel?

The Roku Channel is similar to other free internet streaming channels for your Roku player and Roku TV.

The Roku Channel has FREE movies for your to watch with your Roku player and Roku TV. Movie genres include comedies, thrillers, actions, dramas, westerns, horrors, and more. All movies are “on-demand” so you can start the movie when YOU are ready.

As expected with a free channel, there are commercials shown during the feature. Roku does two things right with commercials.

First, Roku doesn’t run a set of commercials at the start of the movie. This allows you to see if it is a movie you want to watch before having to watch any commercials.

Second, Roku does a good job at limiting the number of commercials. The commercial breaks are about 10-20 minutes apart and seem to average about 2 minutes. In contrast, some cable networks and live broadcast local channels show commercials every 10 minutes for 3-4 minutes.

Read more about The Roku Channel… The Roku Channel is Now Available.

The Roku Channel Adds Free Live News

Cord Cutters often ask about watching Live News and Live Sports. And there are already several FREE and pay streaming services available to Cord Cutters for watching both Live News and Live Sports. Cord Cutters can watch just about any Live TV available to cable or satellite subscribers, and those options continue to grow as new Live TV services from Vidgo, Verizon, and T-Mobile are rumored for 2018.

Now, The Roku Channel adds free Live News to their streaming channel.

Free Live News on The Roku Channel will be provided by:

• ABC News Live – 24/7 Live News Feed
• Cheddar – Technology, media, and entertainment news
• People TV – Celebrity profiles, pop culture, human interest and true crime stories

Roku also hints that Newsy may soon be another addition to The Roku Channel for Free Live News.

ABC News (Free), Cheddar (Pay), People TV (Free) and Newsy (Free) all have their own Roku channels. It will be interesting to see how (or if) The Roku Channel’s Live News programming differs from content provided on these independent Roku channels.

Here are other ways to watch Live News… Top 5 FREE News Channels for Cord Cutters.

More Roku Channel Changes

The Roku Channel will also be getting some new features in May, 2018.

• Collections – Find content by themes
• Continue – Restart movies and shows from where you left-off

While both of these features are available on other streaming services, it is great that Roku is adding them.

Roku OS 8.1 Changes

More new features are coming to the Roku Operating System (OS) in May. Here are some minor feature updates announced by Roku:

Starting in May, Roku OS 8.1 will deliver a number of enhanced features that add convenience and value to a customer’s streaming experience. Most notably, multicast private listening will be added to multiple devices through the Roku mobile app. The update supports up to four users on iOS or Android devices. These updates will be available to customers through a phased rollout over the course of the coming weeks.