Roku UK Channel Store - Weekly RoundUp #67

Hi, everyone !!

Not much in terms of Roku-related news to bring you this time around although there has been a fair amount of new channels added to the channel store which should keep you going between now and next weekend when (hopefully) we will have some snippets of information worth sharing with you. Meanwhile... for those of you who missed my tweet on the subject recently, via the companion Twitter Feed to this blog: @ukrokuchannels, the Roku Streaming Stick (HDMI Version) [Model: 3500EU] is NOW AVAILABLE via Tesco in the UK and you'll find the product information VIA THIS LINK. In their usual (un)timely fashion, Roku have (once more) not seen fit to update the "Where to Buy" information on the "Official" Roku UK website to reflect this, as was the case when Amazon UK first began selling the Roku Stick a few weeks back, so (again) I thought I'd mention it here for the benefit of all visitors to this blog who may be considering a purchase. By way of an ADDED BONUS, for those of you who do decide to buy your new Roku Stick via Tesco Direct, there's a £0.99 saving on the MRRP (well, "every little helps", as the saying goes!) PLUS Tesco Clubcard Members will earn 49 points to put towards further savings and/or vouchers to use with future purchases !!

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 SIXTEEN 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, News, Weather, Sport, Music, International, Special Interest, 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 (where available) with an independent (slightly more expansive) assessment of each one:-

NOLLYLAND..................COST: FREE-TO-ADD + £5.00 (MONTHLY) [Roku Guide Review]

SUNRISE COGOP..................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

iVAYA! FILM.........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

BRIAN BILLIONAIRE..........................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

PLEASE NOTE:- That the 'Roku Guide' review linked-to above is actually for 'The Ringtone Channel' which was developed by 'Brian Billionaire' and, until this past week, was featured as part of the lineup for the "Special Interest" category in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. I would hazard a guess and say that it's probably no small coincidence how 'The Ringtone Channel' was removed during the exact same week that the 'Brian Billionaire' channel made it's debut in the "Music" category (i.e. genre) of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. From what I can gather, both channels serve only to redirect you to the Brian Billionaire website, FOUND HERE, so you may wish to pay that a visit for additional information before you decide to add the channel to your Roku player(s).

HIGH SCHOOL CUBE..........................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

SOUND DOCTRINES TV.....................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

PURGATORY FM..................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

IMPD TV...........................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

VAPORVUE.....................COST: FREE-TO-ADD + $9.99 (MONTHLY) [Roku Guide Review]

CALVARY FTL.....................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

YOGA MERGE..............................................COST: £2.99 (MONTHLY) [Roku Guide Review]

REVELATION OF THE WORD CHURCH.........................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

BIBLE TRACTS RADIO.......................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

CDI TV....................................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

TIMELESS TV WESTERNS.................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

BOXING TV................................................COST: £1.99 (ANNUALLY) [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 nineteen 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 sixteen 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 forty-five '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 I keep saying, 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 have been ONLY THREE NEW CHANNELS ADDED to the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box SINCE THE PRODUCT LAUNCHED and two of those first appeared just a week ago !!  Of course, getting two new channels from the so-called "developers" at NowTV in one go was always likely to be no more than a "flash in the pan" and (perhaps) unsurprisingly it appears that it's now back to "business as usual" as far as (not) adding any new channels to the (already severely reduced) Roku Channel Store that features on the NowTV Box is concerned. Once again (it seems) as time moves on so does the tumbleweed... as evidenced by the following image:-

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

PHOTO SOURCE: tumbleweedprod.com

Consequently, it's likely to be of no surprise to any of you that (as with EVERY WEEK BAR TWO since launch) there has (yet again) 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 SIXTEEN EXTRA CHANNELS during that same period of time. To keep things firmly in perspective, in the forty-seven weeks since the launch of the NowTV Box, there has been a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR EXTRA CHANNELS added to the Roku Channel Store on UK Roku players, as compared with THREE EXTRA CHANNELS 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', 'ITV Player' and 'BBC Sport' being the only channels added to the Roku Channel Store on the NowTV Box since it launched !! Then, six weeks ago, came the turn for '4oD' to up-sticks and leave it's original home in the "Film & TV" category to hide-out in the "Most Popular" channels, presumably (like 'Flixster' before it) preferring the (relative) obscurity of a twenty-five channel lineup to the company of just six other channels with which it had shared the genre since 'Flixster' went into hiding. Perhaps worse still was the loss of 'MLB.TV' from the "News, Weather, Sport" category which, unless you added it previously (in which case you'll find it under 'My Channels' in the menu), you will not (currently) be able to add to the channel selection on your NowTV Box. In fact, as far as the channel selection on the NowTV Box goes, the best I can say is that at least the 'Havoc Television' and the 'VEVO' channels (which had both been missing an "official" Roku Channel Store category on the NowTV Box for a very long time) have now managed to stay put for the past few months, 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".

Even with the two recent channel additions, there are still just 48 CHANNELS to be found in the NowTV Box version of the Roku Channel Store PLUS the 'NOW TV', 'Sky News' and 'Sky Store' channels which (unfortunately) means the overall total remains at only fifty-one channels (just one more than there was when the product was launched back in July 2013). Plus, let's not forget, those last three 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 46 channels in total compared with 1,050+ 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 1,000 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 !!