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Roku just made it much easier for companies to launch new streaming channels

Kris Wouk
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Last week several new models of Roku were unveiled, bringing 4K to more devices as well as the first ever Roku products to feature support for HDR (High Dynamic Range). If you’re looking forward to some new content to watch on your brand new streaming box, fear not: on Wednesday, Roku announced a new feature called Roku Direct Publisher that will surely see the number of available channels grow faster than ever.

Until now, Roku channels were basically applications created for the company’s Roku OS. This required time and effort from developers, discouraging companies that might not have been able to afford the expense. Roku Direct Publisher allows content owners to create new channels without writing a single line of code, making launching new channels a much easier process.

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“Building streaming applications typically involves significant time, development resources and costs in order for publishers to reach and engage TV viewers effectively. With the launch of Roku Direct Publisher, we are empowering content owners to be able to get on the Roku platform quickly, develop an audience and drive monetization,” said the director of product management of the Roku OS, Bill Shapiro. “It’s a great solution for content owners and will also result in a lot of new and interesting channels for viewers.”

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Two new channels built using Roku Direct Publisher debuted just today: Rolling Stone and Us Weekly, both of which are available for free on the Roku platform in the U.S. These join a number of recently released apps including Above Average, Baeble Music, Comedy Dynamics, Cracked, FailArmy, Great Big Story, Mashable, Super Deluxe, UPROXX, and XLTV.

This is useful for businesses, but it’s also useful for Roku owners, as a number of websites and streaming services that were previously unavailable or only available as not-so-user-friendly “private channels,” will now have a much easier time making their way on to the official platform. Of course, this won’t allow for channels that offer pirated content or are otherwise against the terms of service, but if you’re waiting for a Roku channel from your favorite website, it just got a lot more likely.

For more information on the Roku Direct Publisher platform, see the company’s website.

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Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
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