Roku, the streaming media player, has announced that it now has more free local news channels than any other platform. The company says that its new Local Channel feature will provide users with access to over 100 local news channels from around the world. The Local Channel feature is available on Roku devices and Roku TV platforms. It allows users to watch local news live or on-demand, as well as listen to local radio stations. The channels are available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese. Roku also says that its new Local Channel feature will help users stay up-to-date with the latest events in their area. For example, if a user is interested in learning about a city’s upcoming events or sports tournaments, they can use the Local Channel feature to watch those events live or on-demand.
Roku added nine NBC local news channels earlier this year, including NBC New York News and NBC Dallas/Fort Worth News, which roughly mirror what you would get with a cable subscription or OTA antenna in their respective areas (minus NBC’s non-news content). Three more local stations are now available — NBC San Diego News, NBC Boston News, and NBC San Francisco Bay Area. Roku has also added LX News, a nationwide station that NBC launched in 2020.
These stations were already available to stream online through NBC’s Peacock service or other Roku channels, but now they’re built into the Roku Channel, so you don’t need to install or sign up for anything if you already have a Roku player.
There are a few more new “live” channels that are just loops of episodes from specific shows or genres. There’s ‘Roku Channel Western’s with “classic and modern Western movies and popular Western series,” an Ion channel with shows like NCIS and Chicago P.D., BBC Kids, and a few others. Pluto TV is probably still the best option for free streaming content, though.
Source: Roku Blog
