The Roku Channel has now arrived on Amazon Fire TV devices. If installed, the app provides yet another way for streamers to watch a selection of movies and show episodes for free.
Roku and Fire TV might be competing platforms, but that doesn’t mean the two cannot occasionally crossover. The Roku Channel is a newer addition to the world of Roku and although it originally started off as a Roku OS exclusive, it has since expanded to become available on a number of other devices, with Fire TV the latest platform to see its support going live.
Roku has now confirmed that The Roku Channel is already available to owners of Fire TV devices. In fact, the app support seems to be relatively platform-wide with Fire TV streaming players, Fire TV Edition smart TVs, and Fire TV Edition soundbars, all officially listed as compatible.
Getting started with The Roku Channel
The Roku Channel app is now available to directly download from the Amazon App Store. However, in the announcement post, Roku explains that although Fire TV users can download the app as normal, they can also just ask Alexa to download it for them. Alternatively, the app can be manually installed by using the search function on a Fire TV player or Fire TV Edition TV.
Once downloaded and set up, The Roku Channel offers plenty of content for Fire TV users to consume. While the majority of the content is specifically designed to be ad-supported and free to watch, The Roku Channel also offers an option to subscribe to premium channels, including Starz and Showtime. Although, Fire TV users will likely find the premium subscription feature to be less useful, considering Amazon tends to offer the same subscription options through the Fire TV interface.
Then again, one of the additional benefits of The Roku Channel is that it also provides access to a selection of live channels, featuring news, entertainment, and more. Like the premium subscriptions, many of these live channels are the same as what’s offered by other free streaming services. The difference being, The Roku Channel groups the live channels, premium subscriptions, and free on-demand movies and shows episodes, together in the one app and interface.
Source: Roku
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