Hi, everyone !!
Those of you who happen to follow the companion Twitter Feed: @ukrokuchannels of this blog may well have spotted that I spent a great deal of time & effort this week chasing-up Roku developers whose channels had recently been added to the "Official" Roku USA Channel Store but, for reasons (as yet) unclear, were not extended to UK Roku users and (therefore) will not (currently) be found among the selection of "New" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store - or, for that matter, any other genre of the UK channel store - something I hope will be rectified in due course. In fact, I have already heard back from some of those developers and/or content providers with confirmation that some of those "missing" channels will (soon) be edited for UK Roku devices meaning we should see them in a future 'Weekly RoundUp' post on this blog (hopefully) sometime in the coming weeks!
Meanwhile, despite this flurry of activity on social media, it has actually been a rather quiet week - at least, in terms of new additions to the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store - as you will soon discover, when you continue reading below, from the (unusually) short list of UK Roku channel releases. The same can be said of Roku-related news offerings from the past seven days, irrespective of whether you are an Roku UK user or happen to live in one of the other Roku "regions" around the world. Sadly, there has been very little progress with the "Black Bars" issue on BBC iPlayer for Roku... although, an "official" comment from Roku (via social media) did confirm that all parties concerned were aware of the problem and working on a fix. Hopefully, this will mean the matter is resolved soon! Likewise, other reported "niggles" with Roku devices, such as problems streaming in 1080p via 'YouTube' and login issues with 'Netflix UK' also mentioned on social media, have yet to be addressed by either Roku or their respective channel developers. Again, let's hope these issues are fixed sooner rather than later!
Not that it will effect many Roku owners in the UK... but, recent changes in support for "Classic" Roku devices {i.e. those manufactured prior to May 2011 & sold (for the most part) in the USA} have meant that certain Roku channels are no longer available to users of those legacy models. They are also not likely to receive any of the "New" channels going forward. Like I say, this won't apply to many (if any) Roku owners in UK but, if it does, or you are simply interested in reading more on this topic (e.g. if you are an "early adopter" of Roku devices and live in the USA region) there is an 'Roku Guide' article, FOUND HERE, that goes into greater detail (with more specifics on which Roku models this applies to) and lists some of the channels thus far removed. In so far as the majority of UK Roku users are concerned, however, this news story does provide some food for thought as to what might become of the original UK Roku models (i.e. the 'Roku LT' and 'Roku 2 XS' devices) in the not too distant future. Let's not forget, several recent additions to the "Games" genre of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store have overlooked these devices and been released for 'Roku 3' models only... so, my guess is, it's only a matter of time before those UK Roku models and (perhaps) the 'Roku 1' and previous 'Roku 2' [Model: 2720EU] - !!!! N.B. NOT 2015 VERSION [Model: 4205EU] !!!! - will also be given the "cold shoulder" treatment from Roku. Also, the imminent launch of the next-generation 'NowTV' Box (due in August) which is more closely based on 'Roku 3' architecture suggests that this will soon be the minimum specification for all Roku (and "Roku-Powered") streaming media players and those of us who own "lesser-powered" devices may soon need to upgrade our Roku models in order to guarantee future channel support and/or availability - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!
Anyway, before I proceed with listing the current crop of new channels (plus providing links to their associated reviews) for this particular 'Weekly RoundUp'... a brief reminder that, whilst I had hoped I'd be able to catch-up on the missing Roku-related news from this blog in recent weeks, all the extra work I've been burdened with of late means it remains unlikely that I'll be fully caught-up anytime soon. Until I do find the time... my one saving grace is that (as mentioned previously) I have somehow managed to remain up-to-date with all the latest additions to the "New" category of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store and will endeavour to flesh-out what's missing ASAP! Admittedly, there are quite a few articles that I need to catch up on but, rather than post links for individual weeks, I'll simply refer you back to my "Roku UK Channel Store - Weekly RoundUp #78", which contains all of the pertinent information you might need when researching back over the items in question. Again, I'm sorry this has dragged-on (far) longer than anticipated, and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you, but (all being well) things will be back up to speed soon!
For now... all I can offer you is a summary of the latest additions to the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store from the past seven days. As with my other recent posts, you can expect any additional Roku-related news from the past week, along with details of any changes to the channel selection found on NowTV Boxes, to be added at some point in the near future. As for "mending" all of the "broken" links from previous 'Weekly RoundUp' posts, I still can't put a time-scale on how long that is going to take but (like I said before) if you "copy" the existing link(s) and change the "http" prefix to "https", as well as removing the "forward slash" between 'channels' and '#!details', so that "channels#/!details" becomes "channels#!details" in each weblink, you should find that they will all work for you and redirect to the new-look version of each individual channel description. As with the last thirty-seven 'Weekly RoundUp' posts, every link from this week (plus all future posts) will use the new format, so it's only those from 'Weekly RoundUp #1' up as far as 'Weekly RoundUp #86' which you'll have to amend... at least, until I can edit/repair the links for you !!
Still, with all the "missing" Roku-related news (and links) yet to follow, let's now press on with the current 'Weekly RoundUp' of NEW ADDITIONS to the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. This time there are FIVE NEW CHANNELS which have been added during the preceding seven day period. These latest additions provided FRESH CONTENT in the Movies & TV, International, Religious, and Web Video categories. Specifically... this means there's no less than TWO EXTRA CHANNELS in the "International" genre, plus ONE EXTRA CHANNEL in each of the "Movies & TV", "Religious", plus "Web Video" categories among the new choices which have been added to the Roku UK channel selection during this past week.
CNL - RUSSIAN CHRISTIAN TV........................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "RELIGIOUS" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
247 RETRO..............................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "WEB VIDEO" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
RADIO CRISTIANA RIO DE DIOS.....................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "INTERNATIONAL" in Roku UK Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
AFRO PRIME RADIO............................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "INTERNATIONAL" in Roku UK Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
SUPER SERIAL CINEMA.....................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "MOVIES & TV" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
PLEASE NOTE:- That, due to the fact this "Super Serial Cinema" channel was only added to the "Official" Roku USA Channel Store after the publishing deadline for the current crop of reviews, there is (currently) no active link to an 'Roku Guide' review of the "Super Serial Cinema" channel. Needless to say, once the details have been made known to me, I will add the "missing" link to this post.
PLEASE NOTE:- That, due to the fact this "Super Serial Cinema" channel was only added to the "Official" Roku USA Channel Store after the publishing deadline for the current crop of reviews, there is (currently) no active link to an 'Roku Guide' review of the "Super Serial Cinema" channel. Needless to say, once the details have been made known to me, I will add the "missing" link to this post.