Roku now has a dedicated free sports channel

By Phil Nickinson August 7, 2024

The tag on a Roku remote control. — Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

If you’re a Roku user who somehow doesn’t subscribe to anything else and have been sorely missing sports, you’re about to be thrown a bone. The aptly named Roku Sports Channel combines Roku’s free sports content into a single app and will feature all the sports programming that Roku currently licenses.

The Roku Sports Channel will be available starting August 12. It’s separate from the Sports section Roku launched in 2022, which sought to aggregate live events across various services.

“A curated always-on channel that leads our viewer through the wide variety of premium sports content available for free on The Roku Channel, Roku Sports Channel is an exciting addition to our expanding sports offering,” Joe Franzetta, head of sports for Roku Media, said in a press release. “We continue to see audiences enjoy the familiar, lean-back experience FAST offers, especially with sports. Sports is one of our most popular channel genres on The Roku Channel, which makes us so excited to make it even easier for audiences to jump into Roku’s standout programming.”

Don’t expect Roku Sports Channel to have the depth of the ESPN channel (with or without ESPN+). But it will have the sports programming that Roku either owns outright or licenses. That’ll include a smattering of live Major League Baseball games along with MLB Sunday Leadoff, The Rich Eisen Show, GMFB: Overtime, live races from Formula E, and some of Roku’s own sports originals.

Roku Sports Channel also will have NBA G League games and the Roku original WNBA documentary Renee Montgomery: A Radical Act.

Roku Sports Channel will be available only in the U.S., but it’ll be on any Roku streaming player or Roku TV, without requiring an additional subscription.

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