Who doesn’t want free stuff especially when it comes to legal consumption of media online? Those who own Roku set-top boxes are lucky to have a free movie streaming service, in case you’re not into spending a monthly fee for Netflix or Hulu or other video on demand services. Now the Japanese company is extending this treat even to those who don’t have Roku devices, as long as you have a Roku account and as long as you have a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Even if you don’t have any Roku device, you will now be able to watch the free content on your mobile device and on your laptop or computer. There is no stand-alone app here however and you’ll have to access The Roku Channel on your web browser. The interface is also not as robust as what you’re used to if you’ve been using Netflix and the like, but it has the important things like movie details, ratings, release date, genres, and descriptions.
Now don’t think that this free movie streaming service will be able to match or replace whatever it is that you’re using right now. First of all, since it’s free, then you know that ads will be present of course. This means you’ll also have to disable ad-blockers that you may have installed in order to use it. Second, you will be dependent on whatever it is that’s available on the service. They also change the content at any given time, so if you see something you like, watch it already.
What they have currently is the Matrix trilogy, news sources like Cheddar, TV shows like Kitchen Confidential, and even Live TV from ABC, People TV, etc. There also doesn’t seem to be any watch offline functionality so this means you’ll have to be connected to access the videos and stay connected to finish watching whichever catches your fancy.
TheRokuChannel.com is not available in all territories though so you’ll have to check first if it will work where you are before you go and cancel that Amazon Prime subscription. Oh and the only requirement is you will have to sign up for a Roku account if you don’t have one yet.
SOURCE: Roku
