Roku becomes cloud-enabled with new Roku Channel Store and Developer SDK
The new Roku Channel Store, which is being rolled out to all Roku devices, will greatly expand the capabilities of the $99 set-top on-demand streaming device.
Late Sunday night, Roku announced that its players would now have a "Channel Store", much like the "App Store" on other popular Internet-enabled devices such as the iPhone and Android-based phones.
Roku, Inc., maker of the popular and award-winning family of Roku players, announced today the Roku Channel Store and the first 10 free channels for Roku customers to enjoy on their TVs. From internet radio to video podcasts, professional web content to photo sharing and personal videos, the Roku Channel Store provides an open platform for delivering quality content to the TV. New channels now available for customers to add today to their Roku experience via the Roku Channel Store include:Pandora, Facebook Photos, Revision3, Mediafly, TWiT, blip.tv, Flickr, FrameChannel, Motionboxand MobileTribe. For the complete list of channels, specific channel descriptions and features please go to http://www.roku.com/roku-channel-store
These first 10 channels are just the beginning for Roku. Many other developers are working on Roku Channels now, and Roku expects additional developers to adopt the Roku platform over time. New channels will appear in the Roku Channel Store automatically as they become available.
The Roku Channel Store represents an opportunity for content owners and publishers to reach an already large and growing audience of Roku customers. By creating an open platform for delivery to the television over the Internet, Roku has leveled the playing field for content owners.
Roku had previously remote updated its players for Netflix HDTV 720p on-demand video as well as the ability to rent movies on demand from Amazon.com. With the introduction of its new "Channel Store" the Roku moves towards becoming more of a cloud-enabled content viewing device. Having the ability to stream music from Pandora or being able to view my Flickr stream on my HD set is pretty neat.