Roku is thinking local:In the streaming platform’s first local news programming pact, Roku is adding eight NBC local news channels to the Roku Channel — available to stream live for free.
Through the partnership, NBCUniversal Local will bring local news channels from its owned-and-operated NBC stations in eight major U.S. markets — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Conn., and South Florida — to the Roku Channel. Additional NBCUniversal Local channels will be added to the Roku Channel’s Live TV Guide in the coming months, according to the companies.
The NBC channels feature local news, breaking updates, weather forecasts and live events from each market. Roku Channel’s national news options already include NBC News Now, the media company’s free, ad-supported news service.
“Audiences are increasingly opting to consume news through streaming, and local news has consistently been one of the top-requested categories by our users,” said Ashley Hovey, head of ad-supported VOD for the Roku Channel. “We’re excited to work with NBCUniversal Local and the NBC Stations to expand our relevant live TV offering for streamers and to bring news from multiple major cities to millions of viewers across the country to easily access and enjoy.”
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By adding NBC’s local news channels, Roku is furthering its goal of becoming the one-stop-shop for cord-cutters.The Roku Channel’s Live TV guide features more than 300 linear channels across news, sports, music and entertainment alongside more than 80,000 free movies and programs and premium subscriptions from over 50 content partners. It licenses and distributes content from more than 250 partners. In addition to Roku devices, the Roku Channel is available on Web, iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire TV and select Samsung TVs.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the Roku Channel reached American households with an estimated 80 million people, according to the company.
“We look forward to bringing our NBC local news channels and our stations’ best-in-class journalism to the millions of people the Roku Channel reaches and to launching more of our NBC local news channels to expand streamers’ access to our local news content,” said Meredith McGinn, EVP of diginets and original production for NBCUniversal Local.
