Roku is making it easier to find and watch live sports through a new addition to the home screen. There has been an increased push towards content recommendations on various platforms over the years and that’s the case here, with Roku hoping its new Sports section improves the user experience for sports fans.
The idea behind the new sports experience is to cut down on the time it takes to find and start watching a sports event. Instead, the new section will look to highlight sports games and events that a viewer might be interested in, allowing them to click straight through to the live event. Of course, a subscription to the service may still be required to actually watch the event.
To get started with the new feature, users can scroll down and click on the Sports tab. They will then be taken to a section highlighting various leagues, conferences, and events. When clicking on one of the highlighted events, the user will be presented with a list of streaming options that they can then click through to begin watching live.
As part of this update, Roku also says it has improved its search capabilities in general. Essentially, text and voice search can now be used to find specific games, leagues, and teams, further cutting down on the time it takes to see whether a specific team is playing right now and figuring out how to watch.
As this is a new feature, it is somewhat limited in the variety of sports and streaming services it currently supports, with Roku explaining that more will be added over time. For now, Roku users can expect to see baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer from DirecTV Stream, fuboTV, Sling TV, as well as from Fox Sports, Paramount Plus, Peacock, Prime Video, and The Roku Channel, among others. For those with an over-the-air antenna connected to a Roku TV, they can also expect to see information and easier access to local games as well.
