Streaming giant Roku has added a new ‘Live TV’ feature to the ‘Roku Channel’ giving its viewers the option to have a more formal viewing experience. The ‘Live TV’ section has over 100 channels and is similar to what you’d see on Pluto TV, Xumo and Distro TV and has pretty much the same features. 

Things to Know About Roku Live TV Channel:

• No DVR functions (pause, rewind, etc)
• Cannot set timers
• Cannot watch future programming

The Roku Channel itself already hosts thousands of free on-demand titles, including TV shows and movies, and viewership has consistently gone up exponentially year after year.

Though most of the content on Roku’s live TV channel comes from free platforms like Pluto and Xumo, I feel this could be a huge problem for up and coming free streaming platforms like Distro TV who have yet to establish a name or reputation. In the future I suspect that Roku live tv will add more features, expand accessibility and make it easier to find content. And this in turn will no doubt upset other services as they will no longer be looked at as a host but as a competitor.

As of now the Live TV Guide itself is tucked within the other apps on the Roku Channel. This in my opinion is done purposely not to distract you from the other hosted content.

• Use the up and down button on your remote to browse the guide
• While watching a channel, press the left  button on your remote to bring the guide back up.( Pressing back will exit live TV.)
• Press the (*) button to access options (closed caption, ETC)

As of this post the channels are not categorized and you can’t go directly to a specific channel, so you’ll have to browse through the 100+ channels the old fashion way to find what you like. 

Click here to view a complete list of Roku Live TV channels