Hi, everyone !!
If you happen to follow the companion Twitter Feed: @ukrokuchannels to this blog, then you will already be aware that the single most significant piece of Roku-related news from the last seven days was the announcement, via a press release from the Roku Newsroom, to the effect that 'Sanyo' has become the 10th brand to join the Roku TV licensing program, with the first Sanyo-branded TV's expected to ship in Canada sometime later in this financial quarter. Of course, with no mention of any UK equivalent televisions from this partnership, the news that "Sanyo Roku TV's Are Expected to be Available Soon in Canada" was undoubtedly of more significance to Canadian Roku customers... but, for anyone wishing to read more about this latest expansion to the Roku TV licensing program, there was also a related post published by Chas Smith (General Manager of Roku TV and Players) via the "Official" Roku Stream Blog, details of which I first shared via my Twitter Feed: @ukrokuchannels.
Obviously, this is great news for Roku (as a whole) as well as for the Roku TV licensing program... but I still find myself asking why they keep expanding in North America - making hundreds of TV's available for consumers in the United States and Canada - while there is *still* not one single Roku TV model available for UK consumers. I was hoping that, since several of the brands in the Roku TV licensing program also sell televisions in the United Kingdom, we would also be included in this recent announcement... or, at the very least, that there would be a separate press release detailing their plans to introduce the first Roku TV models to the UK. However, it looks like we're going to have to wait a little while longer before we (hopefully) hear news of this becoming a reality. Anyway, with no other major Roku-related (or Roku-specific) news to share with you this week, I'm now going to turn my attention to bringing you details for all the latest new Roku channels (apps) which were released during the seven days since my last 'Weekly RoundUp' post was published! :-)
Firstly, though, I'd just like to mention (on a not entirely un-related note) that I have now added links to some (though, still not all) of the 'Roku Guide' reviews that were previously "missing" for many of the new Roku channels released in the last few weeks... so, if you'd like to see an independent appraisal of those, be sure to check-out my post from last week (see link above), which (itself) contains a link to the previous week's post (and so-on, and so-forth), for details of where to find them. Unfortunately, there are (again) more "missing" links to the 'Roku Guide' reviews for forty per cent of the channels published during the last seven days... which means, much like many other posts from recent months, I'm going to have to leave it for each of you to (once more) access those details on your own. As of two months ago, you can choose to do that either via the built-in channel store on your Roku device(s)... or else, by following the links provided in each post to the relevant channel description(s) from the Roku Web Channel Store. Meanwhile, once the "missing" reviews have been published by 'Roku Guide', I will (as I have done previously) ensure that I add the relevant links to each post. Apologies (as always) for any inconvenience that may be caused by the absence of active links to an independent review for so many of these new apps but, like I say, it was entirely out of my hands. Hopefully they will catch-up on the ones they missed sometime in the coming week!?! ;-) :-)
Still, back to the list... which, as always, will help you to identify the very latest apps that have been added to Roku devices in the UK. Other websites offering Roku channel listings will base their contents on the Roku USA Channel Store, which means they also include apps that are unavailable to UK Roku users. So, like I've said before... if you really want to know what's available channel-wise, for owners of Roku devices in the UK, you need to be reading this blog each and every week! ;-) :-)
With twice the number of active links to check out, not just for this week... but each and every post that has been previously published as part of my 'Weekly RoundUp' series over the last five years, there's a *lot* of reading to catch-up on. So, without further ado, here's my 'Weekly RoundUp' of all new Roku channels released between 1st April 2018 and 7th April 2018:-
TEXAS MILITARY DEPARTMENT.......................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***N.B. THIS WAS UNCATEGORISED in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
PLEASE NOTE:- That, the 'Texas Military Department' channel for Roku devices cannot be found within the 'New' category (i.e. genre) of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store, on account of having been originally added to the Roku USA Channel Store on 8th March 2018. Furthermore, at the time of writing, no permanent category / genre had been assigned to this channel in the UK. If I can somehow succeed in bringing this matter to the attention of the developer / content provider, I would expect to see this app given a permanent "home" under 'Personal Media' in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store within a few weeks of so-doing. In the meantime, I would suggest that you use the built-in Roku 'Search' feature to locate and install it. Using this method, you probably won't even need to finish typing the words "Texas Military" before seeing the channel listed among the 'Search Results' displayed on the right-hand side of your television screen. Failure to assign a permanent channel store category for the UK would mean that it would remain invisible to UK Roku users in the channel store. So, if you think you are likely to want this channel, my advice would be to use the above 'Search' method because, if the necessary edits are not made to the Roku channel package (.PKG file), you will not be able to find/install it by any other means. Needless to say, if the channel does get edited to include a permanent channel store category for the UK, I will update this listing with details of whatever genre has been allocated to it. As mentioned before, I'd expect this category to be the 'Personal Media' genre, since that is what was assigned to the channel in the United States.
FLASHBACK TV NETWORK................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***N.B. THIS WAS UNCATEGORISED in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
PLEASE NOTE:- That, while the 'Flashback TV Network' channel for Roku devices can be found within the 'New' category (i.e. genre) of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store, you will need to scroll down a little further (past the current crop of channels from the past seven days) to find it. This is because it was previously added to the Roku USA Channel Store on 22nd March 2018 and only subsequently made available to UK Roku users after I reached-out to the developer and requested it. Despite extending the channel to the United Kingdom, at the time of writing no permanent category / genre had been assigned to this channel in the UK. If I can bring this matter to the attention of the developer / content provider, I'd expect to see this app given a permanent "home" under 'Film & TV' in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store within a few weeks of so-doing. In the meantime, if you don't wish to trawl through the 'New' category of the channel store to find it, I'd suggest you use the built-in Roku 'Search' feature to locate & install it. Using this method, you probably won't even need to finish typing the word "Flashback" before seeing the channel listed among the 'Search Results' on the right-hand side of your television screen. Failure to assign a permanent channel store category for the UK within the next few weeks (however) would mean that, once it ceases to be part of the 'New' category, it would no longer be listed in the channel store. So, if you think you are likely to want this channel, my advice would be to install it by the last week in April (at the latest) because, if the necessary edits are not made to the Roku channel package (.PKG file) by that time, the only way you will be able to add 'Flashback TV Network' afterwards is to search for it by name - meaning you'd have to already be aware of it's existence beforehand. Needless to say, if/when the channel does get edited to include a permanent channel store category for the UK, I will update this listing with details of whatever genre has been allocated to it. As mentioned before, I would expect this category to be the 'Film & TV' genre, since the channel has been filed under "Movies & TV" in the United States.
MISSILE DODGE FREE.......................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "GAMES" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
GUN SAFETY TIPS..................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPECIAL INTEREST" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
FAVOUR TV............................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "RELIGIOUS" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
GO WEST YOUNG MAN......................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "FILM & TV" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
CLAIM YOUR GAME GOLF...............................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPORTS" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
WINTER SURVIVAL GUIDE...................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPECIAL INTEREST" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING..........................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPECIAL INTEREST" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
THE PERFECT ARROW.......................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPORTS" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
EASTER EGGS & BUNNIES............COST: £1.49 (ONE-OFF PAYMENT) [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SCREENSAVERS" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
BING, BOB AND FRANK.....................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "FILM & TV" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
FILM RABBITS.....................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "FILM & TV" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
AMERICA MATTERS TV.........................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPECIAL INTEREST" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
THE CAMPING CHANNEL..................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "TRAVEL" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
SPACE OF INNOVATION TV................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SCI & TECH" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
RECOVERY CHANNEL........................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "RELIGIOUS" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
FOOD COMA.....................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "FOOD" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
THE ANGLOPHILE CHANNEL..............................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "SPECIAL INTEREST" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***
RELAXING RAIN TV..................COST: £1.99 (ONE-OFF PAYMENT) [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "MUSIC" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
FISH TANK TV.............................COST: £1.99 (ONE-OFF PAYMENT) [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "MUSIC" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
ISLAND ESCAPE TV...................COST: £1.99 (ONE-OFF PAYMENT) [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "MUSIC" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
CONTACTO TEVE..................................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "WEB VIDEO" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
NIGHTLY TERRORS INTERNATIONAL...........................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "FILM & TV" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***
CELEBRITY & ENTERTAINMENT NEWS...........................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
***FILED UNDER: "NEWS & WEATHER" in Roku UK Channel Store WHEN RELEASED***