July 18, 2023

80,000 free shows on Roku TV offered to Android and Google TV

In the US, Android and Google TVs received a new free Roku channel with over 80,000 movies and shows. Analysts believe these channels are going to move the market in a big way. It predicts a possible $9 billion in ad revenues by 2026, and viewing time is currently going up 10% year on year.

Google TV and Android TV in the US received a pleasant surprise by getting a free upgrade. The Roku Channel, which is made up of Roku TVs' free channels that don't require a paid subscription, gives subs access to over 80,000 free movies and programs.

Currently, the service is available to an estimate of 100 million people in the US through the Roku streaming stick 4K, Roku TVs like the Roku Plus Series as well as Fire TVs and some Samsung TVs. The Roku Channel provides a combination of over 350 live, linear television channels covering news, sport and entertainment, and on-demand streaming of films, such as Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Die Hart and The Great American Baking Show.

According to market intelligence, Roku Channel is known as a FAST service: free, ad-supported television. It's a market sector that's expanding very rapidly, especially in the US, where Roku is facing off against the likes of Freevee (by Amazon), Vizio WatchFree Plus and Tubi.

These services aren't the same as the ad-supported plans offered by Netflix or Hulu; those plans use ads to cut the price, but they still charge a subscription. FAST channels don't, and while that doesn't preclude them from offering paid-for content such as movies on demand the main offering is designed to be completely free.

FAST service does have their own combo offerings to subscriber. The majority rely on showing you a fairly wide selection of content with regular ads of 15-30 seconds in length. Hence, its much like what traditional TV channels does. And behind the new names are some very familiar faces such as Viacom/CBS (Pluto), Fox (Tubi), NBCU (Peacock) as well as tech firms including Samsung and Amazon.

Media analysts believe these channels are going to make an impact. It predicts they are capable of bringing in $9 billion in ad revenues by 2026. Besides, viewing time is expected to increase by 10% year on year. It seems that people aren't going for these channels to replace paid-for streaming but to complement it, and while streaming services are seeing their growth slow it's the opposite story for FAST. Chances are if you're not already watching them, you will be soon try out these services.

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