Roku UK Channel Store - Weekly RoundUp #60

Hi, everyone !!

Those of you who read my previous post, "Roku UK Channel Store - Weekly RoundUp #59", may recall my mentioning that the new Roku Streaming Stick (HDMI Version) [Model 3500EU] had become the 4th Roku device in the UK to officially support the '4oD' channel (along with the original 'Roku LT' and 'Roku 2 XS', plus the newer 'Roku 3' streaming media player). I then went on to express my hope that, since the 'Roku 1' and 'Roku 2' (as well as all other UK Roku models) now had support for the official 'YouTube' channel, it wouldn't be too much longer before those additional UK Roku players received support for '4oD' as well. Since Roku had confirmed, VIA THIS COMMENT, on Facebook that '4oD' would be available "on additional Roku player models in the UK in the future", I chose to ignore the comments I had received from one or two naysayers & suggested that it could "only be a matter of time" before all UK Roku owners had access to CatchUpTV from Channel Four on their Roku boxes... and, what do you know?! JUST DAYS LATER... Roku published the BIG NEWS via their Facebook page that "4oD IS NOW AVAILABLE ON ALL ROKU PLAYERS" in the UK, as confirmed by the following screenshot, taken just two minutes after the announcement was made:-

HINT: Click on the above image TO ENLARGE IT for easier viewing !!

So... GREAT NEWS for all those purchasers of the 'Roku 1' and 'Roku 2' models who, by now, must have been wondering if they were ever going to have access to the '4oD' channel on what were, afterall, the very latest UK Roku models (until the recent release of the Roku Streaming Stick) and yet had been denied support for months over something so vital as one of the major UK CatchUpTV services for their devices. I'm especially pleased for the blog reader from the Sands End Community Centre Action Group [aka SECCAG] with whom I exchanged several comments on the subject early this year. Hopefully both they and dear old mum are now sitting down to catch-up on some of the great content from Channel Four that they've been missing until now!

Speaking of major UK CatchUpTV services, there's still no official word from ITV as to when their much-anticipated 'ITV Player' channel will be added to the NowTV Box and (hopefully) to UK Roku players, as happened with '4oD' before it. For their part... NowTV did recently communicate that they "haven't got anything in the works at the moment"with regards to developing / adding an 'ITV Player' channel for their streaming media player but, judging by their weekly contributions to the (severely restricted) version of the Roku Channel Store that features on the NowTV Box, that's hardly surprising. The best they could offer was a suggestion that we "keep an eye on the website for updates" which all sounds like the corporate "cookie-cutter" non-commital response we've come to expect from Roku whenever they have been asked about the progress of certain channels... 'YouTube' and '4oD' being among the more recent examples. However, as frustrating as it is, I'll still take some form of response over the complete "brick wall" silent approach employed by the likes of 'ITV' and 'Amazon' who have both "blanked" every single question I have put to them regarding 'ITV Player' and 'Prime Instant Video', respectively. Maybe someone should develop a Roku channel to teach "Customer Service" and "Communication Skills" to these behemoths of business, so that we start to get some answers?! Still... you can rest assured that, as soon as I do hear anything, details will be posted right here, on this blog, as well as being shared via the companion Twitter Feed: @ukrokuchannels to keep you informed.

Moving on, in addition to new & (possible) future channels, we've also had some more new readers coming to the pages of this blog. Once again, there were many repeat visits from various countries that I've mentioned in previous posts but on this occasion, as with last week, there was just one country that had not featured previously. So, before we go any further with the current 'Weekly RoundUp', I'd first like to extend a warm welcome to those new readers from Dominica, who each took the time to pay a maiden visit to these pages at some point during the past seven days, or so.

To those new readers, and to everyone else who continues to read my Roku-related ramblings here on this blog, I'd just like to say... "Thanks for stopping by" & long may you continue to do so.

Anyway, let's now press on with the details for the current 'Weekly RoundUp' of NEW ADDITIONS to the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. This time, there are TWENTY-THREE NEW CHANNELS which have been added during the past seven days. These latest additions to the channel line-up have provided us with FRESH CONTENT in the Film & TV, Games, News, Weather, Sport, Internet TV, Photos & Video, Screensavers & Apps, plus Religion & Spirituality genres (i.e. categories).

In keeping with previous installments from the 'Weekly RoundUp' series, details of these new channels have all been listed below, together with links to obtain further information {by clicking on the channel name(s) beneath the respective channel icon(s) as pictured} and to read a 'Roku Guide' review with an independent (slightly more expansive) assessment of each one:-

CALVARY CHAPEL SOUTHBURY...........................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

CDSAVOIA.............................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

BUBBLE WRAP......................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

TRUTH THAT TRANSFORMS..................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

REFUGE................................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

HERITAGE CHURCH TEXARKANA.........................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

THE BASILICA OF ST. JOHN..................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

ST. MARK MISSIONARY BAPTIST.........................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

BOXING...........................................................COST: £1.49 (MONTHLY) [Roku Guide Review]

WSMV NEWS.........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

PERFECT 1080........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

PATHOGEN 2................................COST: £1.49 (ONE-OFF PAYMENT) [Roku Guide Review]

R-CAST............COST: FREE + £1.50 (TO UPGRADE ANDROID APP) [Roku Guide Review]


PLEASE NOTE:- That whilst this channel is FREE-TO-ADD and (can be) FREE-TO-VIEW with your Roku player, IT REQUIRES AN ANDROID DEVICE TO BE USED (running Version 2.2 and up) which (in turn) will need to have the 'R-Cast' app installed, FOUND HERE, that (fortunately) is available to you FREE-OF-CHARGE via the 'Play Store'. However, you should BE AWARE that the free version of the 'R-Cast' app is AD-SUPPORTED and only offers LIMITED FUNCTIONALITY with video playback restricted to just ten minutes. Personally, I consider the (one-off) in-app purchase price of £1.50 to be well worth paying-out for the 'R-Cast RADICAL Edition' which has the advantage that it will REMOVE ALL ADS and let you enjoy 'R-Cast' with NO TIME LIMITS IMPOSED, as there are in the free version. Having said that...


PLEASE ALSO NOTE:- That (if you opt for the free version of the app) although playback is limited to just 10 minutes, you can immediately return to the same video and find the point where you left-off (i.e. the 10, 20, 30 minute mark, etc) and then carry on watching for another 10 minutes. If, like me, you consider that to be a more of a nuisance than it's worth, then I recommend that you simply upgrade (via the in-app purchase) to the afore-mentioned 'R-Cast RADICAL Edition' and thus avoid repeated interruptions to your viewing for the one-off purchase price of only £1.50... MONEY WELL-SPENT, if you ask me !! Even so, this Roku channel "can be" entirely FREE-TO-USE with your Roku player if you wish. The choice, as with all things Roku, is yours entirely !!

FOX12 OREGON...................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

KCTV NEWS..........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

WPLG NEWS..........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

KSAT NEWS...........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

WDIV NEWS...........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

WNYT NEWS..........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

KSTP MPLS-ST.PAUL NEWS, WEATHER.........................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

KOB NEWS.............................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

WALTER BISCARDI DOT COM.........................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

CLASSIC LIVE ACTION KIDS TV...........COST: £1.49 (ONE-OFF PAYMENT) [Roku Guide Review]

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Anyway, like it or not, that is your lot for this week and, whilst it doesn't quite the match-up to the twenty-six channels which made it into the "Official" Roku USA Channel Store during the same time-frame, I always think it's better to have SOME NEW CHOICES than none at all, don't you ?!!

Still, hopefully everyone in the UK with a Roku player managed to find something they like within the twenty-three channels outlined above. If not, then you'll just have to pay us a visit another time when, with any luck, there will be something more to your liking. Afterall, there's no point installing every channel because, as I've said before, when it comes to adding new channels to your Roku player, IT'S YOUR CHOICE and, as with all things Roku... THE CHOICE IS ALWAYS YOURS !!

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In the meantime, for my last thirty-eight 'Weekly RoundUp' posts, I have been suggesting we spare a thought for all the poor folk who handed over their hard-earned cash for one of those NowTV Boxes [Powered by Sky] which, as you may recall, have (so far) totally failed to live up to their full potential. Likewise, the original promise from NowTV of "more apps being continually added", is yet to be adhered to, since there has been ONLY ONE NEW CHANNEL ADDED to the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box SINCE THE PRODUCT LAUNCHED. Of course, this constant failure by the so-called "developers" at NowTV to add any new channels to the feeble excuse for a Roku Channel Store that features on the NowTV Box was bound to take it's toll on owners of the streaming player...

HINT: Click on the above image to ENLARGE IT for easier viewing !!

PHOTO SOURCE: KHQ Today

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Courtney

Here we see one such NowTV Box owner struggling to get to grips with the lack of channels available in the (severely restricted) Roku Channel Store that features on the streaming player from NowTV. In fact some have even suggested that, far from getting to grips with it, this guy has actually "lost the plot" on account of the inactivity in the channel store on his NowTV Box... and who could blame him?! Or, perhaps, he's just venting his frustration at the constant buffering experienced by many NowTV Box owners during the live stream of the weekend sporting fixture(s) and/or "Game Of Thrones" episode(s) which appears to be an on-going issue for subscribers to the service. Whatever the reason... it's fair to say that he would have had far more choice had he opted for a genuine Roku over a NowTV Box !!

Aside from the comic imagery... the article from which the above photo was taken, FOUND HERE, written by Bailey Diehl and published via KHQ Today, also contains references to the tumbleweed being "strategically placed there by an evil mastermind" which some have suggested as being the same tactic employed by the "evil mastermind" behind the lack of channels on the NowTV Box. However, I cannot help but feel that the "strategy" of not adding any new channels to the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box, week-in and week-out, is (ultimately) a flawed one and should be abandoned in favour of the more Roku-like policy of adding more channels (and, therefore, more content) each week. That way, NowTV could actually live up to their promise of "more apps being continually added" and I could publish images of channel icons instead of tumbleweed... now there's a thought !!

Consequently, it's likely to be of no surprise to any of you that (as with EVERY WEEK BAR ONE since launch) there has (once more) been literally NO ACTION in terms of NEW ADDITIONS to the Roku Channel Store selection on the NowTV Box. What this means is that, over the course of the past week, NowTV have (again) produced a (NOT SO) GRAND TOTAL of ZERO NEW CHANNELS to add to their (already SEVERELY REDUCED) version of the Roku Channel Store as included on their NowTV Box. Meanwhile, the "Official" Roku Channel Store that features on all UK Roku players has added a further TWENTY-THREE EXTRA CHANNELS during that same period of time. To keep things firmly in perspective, in the forty weeks since the launch of the NowTV Box, there has been a total of FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY EXTRA CHANNELS added to the Roku Channel Store on UK Roku players, as compared with ONE EXTRA CHANNEL being added to the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box. That, surely, must tell you something ?!!!

Like I've said in previous weeks, it seems to be a case of one step forward and two steps back when it comes to the meagre selection of channels available in the Roku Channel Store which features on the streaming media player from NowTV. To illustrate my point... from the moment that the NowTV Box was launched, they have managed to completely lose 'WatchIndia' and 'USTV Now', with '4oD' being  the one & only channel added to the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box since it launched !! Most recently it was the turn of the 'Flixster' channel to up-sticks and leave it's original home in the "Film & TV" category to hide-out in the "Most Popular" channels, presumably preferring the (relative) obscurity of a twenty-five channel lineup to the company of just seven other channels with which it had shared a genre upto that point. At least the 'Havoc Television' channel which, until a couple of months ago (or thereabouts), had been 'AWOL' for a very long time and the 'VEVO' channel (which had been missing an "official" Roku Channel Store category on the NowTV Box for a similar period) have both managed to stay put for the past eight weeks, having found their way back into the 'Music' genre (i.e. category) of the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box. Likewise... the other channel lacking an "official" Roku Channel Store category on the NowTV Box for quite some time, namely 'HooplaKidz Rhymes', remains part of "Internet TV".

Whilst this means there are still 48 CHANNELS to be found in the NowTV Box version of the Roku Channel Store PLUS the 'NOW TV' and 'Sky Store' channels which (as I said before) keeps the overall total pegged at fifty channels (as there were at launch) let's not forget those last two are only there by default and not included with the apps (i.e. channels) in the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box. If we then leave aside the "Most Popular" channels and any additional ones listed in "My Channels" (as I do with my channel count for the Roku player), when it comes to the actual Roku Channel Store categories on the NowTV Box, there remains no more than a paltry 47 channels in total compared with 950+ in the channel store on UK Roku players !!!

Bearing this in mind... whilst the NowTV Box won't exactly leave you out-of-pocket, if you are after a streaming media player which can genuinely boast of "more apps being continually added" and is a lot less likely to leave you wanting by the time the summer holiday period begins, then I strongly advise you to do yourselves a BIG FAVOUR and spend the extra twenty quid or so to get a genuine original Roku LT streaming media player that will allow you to ACCESS NETFLIX plus many other film & tv channels (incl. NowTV) as well as having both the 'Plex' and 'YouTube' channels readily available via the channel store and will give you more than 900 EXTRA CHANNELS TO CHOOSE FROM when compared with the selection (currently) found on a NowTV Box.

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Still, whether you happen to own a Roku player, a NowTV Box, OR BOTH, as I do... be sure to come back in seven days' time for my next 'Weekly RoundUp' and, if you can't wait that long, remember you can always keep up with all the UK Roku action (as it happens) throughout the coming week, by following the companion Twitter Feed: @ukrokuchannels where up-to-the-minute info on all things Roku-related (here in the UK) is posted on a daily basis (well, almost).

Until the next time, then...

That's all folks !!