Roku Launching New Free ‘Great British Baking Show’ Channel Featuring 150 Classic Episodes
Get your proving drawers ready, and make sure your pastry bottoms aren’t soggy, Roku Channel users. The ad-supported streaming service is rolling out a new channel dedicated to “The Great British Baking Show” (or “Great British Bake Off” across the pond) which will feature 150 classic episodes and is available now.
In addition, the service will host a special celebrity holiday episode of “The Great American Baking Show” on Dec. 2 ahead of the series’ full return to the service next spring. The episode will feature Chloe Fineman, Nat Faxon, Marshawn Lynch, D’Arcy Carden, Joel Kim Booster, and Liza Koshy as contestants.
As was announced in August, Roku is firing up a reboot of the “Great American Baking Show” that will air in 2023. “GBBO” judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith will return as judges, while Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry will take over hosting duties.
“Our goal with the ‘Baking Show’ universe is to surprise and delight fans of this iconic franchise,” Roku’s head of alternative originals Brian Tannenbaum said. “On the originals side, that began with an American version that honors all of the endearing elements of the original, with incredible new co-hosts in Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry, iconic judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, and the wonderful team at Love Productions. As our partnership evolved, we recognized an opportunity to enhance the viewing experience for our streamers and worked closely with our content acquisition team to turn that possibility into a reality.”
The launch of the channel is especially good news for fans of the original series, because until now many of its episodes weren’t available to stream anywhere. Netflix currently offers Collections 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and the currently airing Collection 10 to subscribers. These series correspond to Series 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 in the U.K. Older seasons of the show were previously available on PBS, but they left that platform on Dec. 31, 2021. Now, fans will be able to see classic episodes from the show’s early seasons once again.
“Bringing such a wide breadth of ‘Baking Show’ content to the Roku Channel, and programming it in different ways across the Roku Channel, exemplified the strength of our multipronged content strategy,” Roku Channel head of content acquisition Jennifer Vaux said. “We’re uniquely positioned to drive audiences across content types – FAST, AVOD, and originals. Because of this, we can create synergies across the Roku Channel that not only drive audiences to programming but keep them engaged across our service. This multi-faceted approach both complements the launch of our original content and allows us to create more meaningful and holistic viewing experiences on the Roku Channel.”
Between “Bake Show” and the new Martha Stewart channel, the tasty treats just keep coming for Roku Channel users.
Roku Channel
The Roku Channel is a free live TV streaming service that provides 350+ live linear streaming channels and more than 80,000 free movies and TV shows. The library contains entertainment from several different decades, including some major hits.