Roku has launched a Channel Store for its diverse line of set-top boxes. Company spokesperson Brian Jaquet told TG Daily that the store currently offers 10 free channels, including Pandora, Facebook Photos, Revision3, Mediafly, TWiT, blip.tv, Flickr, FrameChannel, Motionbox and MobileTribe.
“These first 10 channels are just the beginning for Roku. Numerous other developers are working to create additional channels that can be added in the future without a firmware update,” said Jaquet. “Really, our focus is to provide great entertainment for customers by offering them more control and options than ever before.”
He explained that Roku’s content store was primarily focused on personalization.
“If a customer doesn’t like a particular channel, it can be permanently or temporarily replaced with a minimal amount of effort. Customization is a great end user benefit. Remember, these channels are representative of a lot of amazing content being developed and includes a variety of audio, video and images.”
Jaquet noted that the Roku Channel Store has created a marketplace for (legal) content owners, aggregators and studios to quickly “push” their media through to Roku customers and their set-top boxes.
“We are aiming to have a platform that is truly unique, with diverse options for customers. We also believe that the cream – or quality content – will rise to the top. Channels are rated and sorted in a number of different ways, such as by popularity and total number of downloads.”
He added that there was a “definite” opportunity for the creation of approximately 100 Roku channels.
“Our pipeline is quite robust. While it is hard to pinpoint an exact number of future channels, we consider that there is a definite opportunity for at least 100.”
It should be noted that all Roku players, including the Roku SD, Roku HD and Roku HD-XR models, are compatible with the Roku Channel Store.
The new store supplements existing content provided by Amazon, Netflix, Video On Demand and MLB.TV.??
See Also?
Roku streams Netflix on wireless set-top boxes
Netflix to stream movies over Sony PS3
?Video-on-Demand available in HD via Amazon
?Amazon Video on Demand launches on Roku
?Up next for Apple TV: Networked cable television
