Roku OS 11.5 details, a free Thursday Night Football workaround
This week on TechHive: Roku’s next update changes everything
After years of waiting for Roku to offer a better way to keep tabs on your streaming services, the company has finally delivered.
With the Roku OS 11.5 update coming later this fall, Roku will add several new ways to figure out what to watch: A “Save List” feature, for instance, will let you bookmark shows to watch later from any streaming service, while a “Continue Watching” section will help you quickly resume shows without leaving Roku’s home screen. To help in moments of indecision, another menu section called “The Buzz” will let you flip through movie and show suggestions.
Together, those features signal a shift in the way Roku approaches TV. While the company’s traditional app grid isn’t going anywhere, it’s becoming less of a focus as Roku comes up with new ways to navigate your streaming options. That’s a big deal not just for Roku users, but for streaming TV as a whole. Read the full column on TechHive.
Weekly rewind
More Roku updates: In other Roku news, the company has updated its $30 Express streamer to support dual-band Wi-Fi, so you’ll be able to connect to the faster 5 GHz band on most modern routers. Its remote, however, still lacks volume, TV power, and voice controls, so I still suggest buying something else.
The company is also launching a $130 wireless subwoofer to work with its streaming soundbars, which plug into your TV’s HDMI slot and double as Roku streaming boxes. The new model is $50 cheaper than Roku’s bigger woofer, and has about half the peak wattage.
Free Thursday Night Football: It turns out you don’t need an Amazon Prime subscription to watch Amazon’s exclusive Thursday Night Football coverage. Just tune into the Prime Video channel on Twitch, and you can watch the games for free.
There is a catch, though: You can only watch without a Twitch login through your web browser, and even with a login, I couldn’t get Twitch’s connected TV apps or Chromecast to work. I was, however, able to use AirPlay screen mirroring from Twitch’s iPhone app, so that’s an effective workaround if you have an Apple TV, Roku, or other AirPlay-compatible device.
More mandatory bundling? I will now direct your attention to a pair of related stories from the last week:
- Disney CEO Bob Chapek told the Los Angeles Times that the company is pondering whether to create a “hard bundle” of Disney+ and Hulu if it buys out Comcast’s share of the latter.
- Per the Wall Street Journal, Paramount is considering whether to discontinue Showtime’s streaming service and roll its content into Paramount+. (This makes the recently-revamped Paramount+ and Showtime bundle seem somewhat like a trial balloon.)
We already know that HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge into one service next year. For media companies with multiple brands and streaming services, the age of mandatory bundling is starting to seem inevitable. After all, it’s what they know best.
More catch-up
- Neat tip from Phillip Swann: MLB TV’s condensed game recaps are free to watch without a subscription.
- Warner exec hints at possible HBO Max and Discovery+ price hikes.
- Now you can ask Alexa to give you sports team updates on Fire TV.
- An Apple TV software update adds HDR10+ support and new fitness-tracking features.
Save more money
Surprise surprise, we’ve got a code for yet another free month of Paramount+. Sign up on the web using the promo code STARTREKDAY—even on the Premium tier—or see this TechHive article for more instructions on how to redeem these codes every month.
Other notable deals:
- Get 10 months of Starz for $20.
- Get a refurbished Roku Streambar for $75.
- Several of the deals I mentioned in last week’s newsletter are still available, including a year of Peacock for $20 (new subscribers only), 40% off a year of HBO Max (new and returning subscribers), and three months of Hulu + Live TV for $50 per month (new and returning subscribers).
Thanks for reading!
Got cord cutting questions for me? Just reply to this email to get in touch.
Until next week,
Jared