SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku users looking for sports take heart. The streaming TV platform is taking steps to make it easier to find and watch live sports and upcoming sports across the platform, the company said in a blog post.
The move centralizes the location of sports content to make it easy to find and stream sports without clicking through multiple apps or channels. Instead, they can find what they seek, accessing their favorite games and matches via a visual, immersive destination on the Home Screen Menu, the company said.
The change to the interface is in line with what sports fans said they wanted in a recent poll. Sixty-one percent expressed their desire for a central location where they can watch sports, and 63% said they preferred have a way to browse their favorite teams and leagues, Roku said.
“We know that keeping track of where sports are being streamed has only become more fragmented over the past few years,” said Alex Hill, director of Live & Sports at Roku. “Watching your favorite teams should be simple, so we’ve made it a priority to build out a more seamless and streamlined way to discover and watch sports on our platform.
“Sports are a vital part of the streaming experience, and we will continue to make enhancements to that experience, like adding more supported providers and finding new ways for our users to follow their favorite teams.”
Other new Roku platform features give viewers access to a deeper, more convenient integration of sports in features, including Roku Search, Roku Voice and Sports Zone. Sports-related content of supported channels will be available during the season of its related sports league, the company said.
Roku users can find games by scrolling down to Sports on the main menu or by searching for the word “sports” or related words like a team or league name in the Roku Search or with Roku Voice. The new sports interface lets viewers see live and upcoming games for various leagues and conferences. When a viewer selects a game, they will be given watch options for that event from supported channels. They also can choose from various Zones specific to individual sports or leagues to view live games or upcoming contests and events, it said.
The platform also has added new sports-related shows: “The Rich Eisen Show” and “Emeril Tailgates.”
Sports content accessible via the new interface is available from Apple TV, DIRECTV, FOX Sports, FuboTV, Paramount+, Peacock, Prime Video, Sling, The Roku Channel, TNT, TBS, and truTV. This month, GNC is sponsoring the College Football Sports Zone, the company said.
The Roku blog is available here.
