Roku has announced the launch of their “Home Together” initiative, aimed making your time at home that much easier during this quarantine period. The streamer is now focusing on highlighting live and local news, kids and family entertainment, at-home fitness, educational and faith-based channels as people are confined to their homes for the foreseeable future.
The company is also offering free access to over 20 premium channels within The Roku Channel. Premium channels include Showtime, Epix, FitFusion, Smithsonian and more. Other channels across the Roku platform have also unlocked their platforms or are providing extended free trials.
Roku joins a slew of other streaming companies ensuring the public remains connected during this time. Last week, Hulu partnered with ABC News Live to bring the live stream to subscribers of both the ad-supported and ad-free tiers. The deal also includes users who subscribe to a bundled Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+.
In addition, Sling TV also announced last week they were helping people to stay home and stay connected amid the coronavirus outbreak with their “Stay in and Sling” initiative, which offers free access to news and entertainment. The Sling TV free experience includes news from ABC News Live, Fox News and local Fox affiliates in 18 markets, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Fox News and certain Fox broadcast stations will remain a part of “Stay in and Sling’ temporarily.
The company doubled down on their efforts with the addition of 19 international news channels — including Al Jazeera, BBC Arabic, Times Now, Republic TV, EuroNews, France 24, Band News and ETTV News, covering the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, Brazil and East Asia.