Roku said its linear channel lineup has expanded to more than 200 with 17 new channels launching this week on The Roku Channel.
Starting today, users will be able to watch 16 new linear channels including AccuWeather Now, CBC News, El Rey, FilmRise Horror, FilmRise Kids, IGN, Real Madrid TV and Tribeca Channel. On August 19, the service will add a new linear channel dedicated to The Wiggles.
“Roku is rooted in creating better streaming experiences for our users, using our brand pillars of ease, value and choice to guide us,” said Ashley Hovey, director of The Roku Channel AVOD, in a statement. “The demand for free, quality programming continues to be of importance to our streamers. We’ve seen linear streaming explode over the last year and we’re very excited to offer an all-new lineup of great channels with some of the most-recognized franchises to our users.”
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The Roku Channel first launched live/linear programming in 2018 and added the Kids & Family experience in 2019. During the second quarter, the company said Kids & Family programming on The Roku Channel was streamed by more households than any other AVOD kids and family stand-alone channel on its platform.
Roku ended the most recent quarter with 55.1 million active accounts as the company’s user growth and engagement numbers slowed down slightly. The company added 1.5 million active accounts—compared to 2.4 million in the first quarter and 3.2 million in the same quarter of 2020—but total streaming time on the platform fell by 1 billion quarter over quarter to 17.4 billion hours.
The Roku Channel, the company’s ad-supported streaming service and subscription video hub, said it doubled its streaming hours year over year as new exclusive content like Roku Originals (which were acquired from Quibi) launch on the service.