As Roku surpasses 30 million active accounts, they have continued to grow their stable of free entertainment as part of The Roku Channel. Now, for the first time, the service will have a dedicated Kids & Family section with 7,000 free, ad-supported movies and TV episodes. The feature will begin rolling out to all U.S. users on Roku devices starting today, as well as on the Web and on select Samsung smart TVs.
The content will come from 20 launch partners including Lionsgate, Hasbro, and Mattel with franchises like Care Bears, The Cat in the Hat, Leapfrog, Little Baby Bum, My Little Pony, Rev & Roll, Super Mario Brothers, and Thomas & Friends. Roku has partnered with pocket.watch for give exclusive 22-minute episodes of 22-minute Ryan’s World.
The announcement comes as kids programming has reentered the spotlight with the upcoming launch of Disney+ in November. Earlier this year, Netflix acquired Storybots, the educational content company behind the kids’ series Ask the StoryBots. In 2016, WarnerMedia-owned HBO acquired the rights to Sesame Street, while Apple TV+ is launching a coding education series called Helpsters, in conjunction with Sesame Workshop. Earlier this month, CBS All Access announced the addition of 1,000 episodes of kid’s programming.
Additionally, those who subscribe to premium services through Roku like HBO, NOGGIN, and ZooMoo will see shows like Bubble Guppies, Dora the Explorer, PAW Patrol, Peppa Pig appear in the Kids and Family section. For those who want a traditional TV experience, there will be 24/7 live linear streams from Moonbug, pocket.watch, as well as XUMO-powered Ameba, BatteryPop, and KidGenius.
To make sure kids are seeing appropriate content, the section with be managed by Roku’s in-house editorial team. Also, Roku has introduced PIN-based playback controls to The Roku Channel to help parents set access limits to content based on ratings within The Roku Channel.