All-New Roku Original “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” Music on The Roku Channel and More Inspire Holiday Cheer; Immersive New Years' Experience and Roku Recommends “The Year in Streaming” Special to Delight Users This Season
Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) today announced the launch of special seasonal experiences on the Roku® platform in the U.S., giving users easy access to great entertainment throughout the winter season.
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The Roku Channel (Graphic: Business Wire)
Starting on December 1, The Roku Channel transforms into a winter hub complete with curated collections of thousands of hit movies and TV shows, live TV channels, kids & family entertainment and much more. Users of The Roku Channel in the U.S. can kick off the holiday season with the release of Roku’s first ever feature-length film, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” from Lionsgate Television on December 1. Additionally, The Roku Channel is partnering with iHeartRadio, Vevo and others to bring holiday music experiences and more to The Roku Channel in the U.S. for free.
For the first time ever, Roku is launching an immersive New Years' experience across Roku devices in the U.S. starting on December 27, to help users ring in 2022. Also included in the experience, popular weekly entertainment show “Roku Recommends” presents the top 10 shows of 2021 with its first special, “The Year in Streaming.” The show will feature appearances from some of TV’s favorites, including Liza Katzer and Jamie Lee, producers of Ted Lasso, Amy Ryan (Only Murders in the Building), O.T. Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale), Chrishell Stause (Selling Sunset), Karamo Brown (Queer Eye), Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and many more.
“The Roku Channel has become the heart of the home for many streamers and is home to a wide variety of amazing, free entertainment,” said Ashley Hovey, Director of AVOD, Roku. “We’re connecting users with the content they want most during the holiday season. Whether it’s a feel-good original film, like ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,’ music for every kind of celebration, or reliving some of the best streaming moments of 2021 with Roku Recommends, The Roku Channel is a one-stop destination for great entertainment for millions of users.”
Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas
The all-new Roku Original, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” makes its debut on The Roku Channel on December 1. The end credits of the film feature an all-new holiday song titled, “North Star,” performed by GRAMMY award-winning artist, Tori Kelly. The song was co-written by “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas” star, Mary Steenburgen, Troy Verges and Caitlyn Smith, about love, loss and connection during the most wonderful time of the year. It was produced by Harvey Mason Jr. In addition to watching the film on-demand, users can enjoy “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas” as well as episodes of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” through an all-new linear channel in the U.S., “Roku Channel Movies & TV.” For a streaming encore, musical clips from the Roku Original film will be available to stream within Music on The Roku Channel later this month.
Holiday Music and More on The Roku Channel
On December 1, The Roku Channel is expanding its roster of linear music channels, enabling users to choose their favorite musical genre and enjoy a continuous stream of tunes for free. Users will also be able to enjoy a 24-hour Yule Log channel for free. Additionally, coming later this month, The Roku Channel will debut a dedicated music experience called Music on The Roku Channel, featuring a variety of channels and music video programming from iHeartRadio, Qwest Jazz, Stingray and Vevo, the world’s leading music video network. With Music on The Roku Channel, users can enjoy seasonal channels to inspire their holiday spirits as well as a wide range of genres and music.
New Year’s Eve on Roku
For the first time ever, users will be able to enjoy an immersive New Year’s Eve experience directly from their Roku home screen. Starting on December 27, the home screen will transform into a New Year’s destination complete with Roku’s 2022 countdown clock, themes and New Year’s Eve screensaver, daily product giveaways and trivia, 99¢ premium subscription offers on The Roku Channel, easy access to free New Year’s Eve related content on The Roku Channel via the left-hand navigation menu, and more.
As part of the New Year’s Eve experience on Roku, “Roku Recommends” will close out 2021 with its first special. Co-hosts Emmy® Award-winner, Maria Menounos, and award-winning, multi-hyphenate, Andrew “Hawk” Hawkins, present the top 10 shows of the year as voted by Roku streamers and offer a sneak peek at 2022 in a special version of the popular weekly entertainment program. “The Year in Streaming” will be available on The Roku Channel and Featured Free starting December 27. Intuit TurboTax has signed on as a sponsor of the Roku Recommends New Year’s Eve special.
Launched in 2017, The Roku Channel is the home of free and premium entertainment on the Roku platform. This year, The Roku Channel saw record growth, reaching U.S. households with an estimated 70 million people in Q1 2021. In Q3, The Roku Channel was a top five channel on the Roku platform in the U.S. by active account reach. Today, The Roku Channel features a diverse lineup of more than 80,000 free movies and programs and 200+ free live linear television channels. It licenses and distributes content from more than 200 partners. In addition to Roku devices, The Roku Channel is available on Web, iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire TV and select Samsung TVs and can be accessed internationally in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
For more information, visit https://therokuchannel.roku.com.
About Roku, Inc.
Roku pioneered streaming to the TV. We connect users to the streaming content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers. Roku streaming players and TV-related audio devices are available in the U.S. and in select countries through direct retail sales and licensing arrangements with service operators. Roku TV™ models are available in the U.S. and in select countries through licensing arrangements with TV brands. Roku is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. U.S.A.
This press release contains “forward-looking” statements that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us on the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements include but are not limited to the content, benefits, features, timing and availability of Roku’s seasonal experiences, Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas and other Roku Originals on The Roku Channel; trends related to TV streaming; and the features, benefits, growth and reach of The Roku Channel and the Roku platform. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially are detailed from time to time in the reports Roku, Inc. files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on Roku’s website and are available from Roku without charge.
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