Roku Opens Channel Store

LOS ANGELES: Roku is opening access to its Internet set-top device to third-party content providers, adding 10 partners to its "Channel Store" this week, among them Facebook and Pandora. 

The Roku Channel store now features 10 new free channels: Blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3 and TWiT. These join the current lineup that includes Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and, more recently, MLB.TV. The Channel Store feature allows users to customize which channels they want to see on their menu. 

Roku’s CEO, Anthony Wood, said the Channel Store strategy "will open new customer-acquisition avenues" with a wider array of content offerings. "Because we have created an open platform for development, customers can expect even more new content channels in the near future," he added.

Brian Jaquet, the director of corporate communications for Roku, said that in the next six weeks it will publish a web-based software development kit (SDK) for any content provider to create a Roku "channel." There is no fee to add a channel to the Roku service, but the company does reserve the right to approve all channels. "We are a gatekeeper in the sense that we want to make sure it works, and that you have the rights to the content," Jaquet said. "If you want to put up South Park, you better be Viacom or someone else who owns the distribution rights to that."