Good news for Roku users in the UK: Roku has finally rolled out its content discovery features to television sets, ending a two-year period where these tools were exclusive to streaming sticks.
The ‘What to Watch’ hub, ‘Continue Watching’ feature, and universal ‘Save List’ are now rolling out to all Roku TV models in Britain, offering a potential solution to the endless scrolling that plagues modern TV viewing.
Also, in a welcome surprise for aerial users, the update also takes a first step toward bridging Roku’s streaming and broadcast worlds, with a new row showing thumbnails of what’s currently playing on Freeview channels.
It’s the first meaningful integration between Roku’s interface and traditional TV in the UK, though plenty of disconnects still remain.
What’s New for Roku TVs?
Roku has long been a major player in the streaming world, particularly in the US where they’re a market leader. In the UK, they’ve been steadily building their presence since 2012, offering both standalone streaming devices and smart TVs.
Their current lineup includes affordable streaming sticks like the Roku Streaming Stick (£29.99) and Streaming Stick Plus (£39.99), as well as premium options like the Streaming Stick 4K with Dolby Vision support.
On the TV front, Roku partners with manufacturers including Hisense, JVC, Metz, Sharp, and TCL to produce Roku TVs – complete television sets with Roku’s operating system built in, offering the same user-friendly interface as their streaming sticks but without needing an extra device.
The ‘What to Watch’ hub, which has been available on Roku’s standalone streaming devices since November 2023, offers personalised recommendations based on your viewing habits and subscriptions.
It appears in the navigation menu on the Home Screen, giving you quick access to content from across your streaming apps.
Within this hub, you’ll find the ‘Continue Watching’ feature that lets you jump back into shows and films you’ve started but not finished, regardless of which streaming service they’re on.
The ‘Save List’ function also provides a single destination for content you’ve marked to watch later.
Richard Halton, Roku’s UK Country Manager, describes this update as “another step in Roku’s mission to deliver the best TV streaming experience,” adding that it helps viewers “effortlessly find entertainment that interests them.”
What These Features Actually Do (And Don’t Do)
As someone who’s been using these features on Roku’s streaming sticks for well over a year now, I can tell you they’re useful for some – but not revolutionary.
The ‘What to Watch’ section is essentially Roku’s attempt at content discovery, similar to what you’ll find on platforms like Amazon’s Fire TV or Google TV.
It’s a bustling collection of shows and films organised into various rows, each catering to different preferences based on your viewing habits.
In theory, the more you use this section, the more personalised your recommendations become. In practice, it’s a bit hit and miss. I’ve occasionally been baffled by suggestions that seem completely unrelated to anything I’ve ever watched (unless my cat has figured out how to use the remote when I’m asleep).
‘Continue Watching’ aims to give you a single place to find shows and films you’ve already started watching – regardless of which streaming service you watched them on.
So you might see a film you’re in the middle of from Netflix alongside an episode from a series you were watching on ITVX.
When it works, it’s brilliant – jumping back into a show without having to remember which app it was on is genuinely convenient. But support across streaming services is inconsistent.
Some apps, like BBC iPlayer, don’t always appear in the Continue Watching row, and there are occasional syncing issues where finished shows still appear as incomplete.
The ‘Save List’ is Roku’s version of a universal watchlist – a place to bookmark content you want to watch later.
The problem is, you can only add content to your Save List when you find it through Roku’s search or recommendations. You can’t mark anything for later viewing from within most apps themselves.
So if you’re browsing through Netflix and spot something interesting, you’ll need to exit, search for it via Roku, then add it to your Save List. It’s cumbersome enough that I rarely remember to use it.
Another limitation is that there’s no way to select different profiles or users, so all recommendations, continued watching, and saved content are mixed together for the entire family.
This can lead to some interesting recommendation combinations when your viewing habits clash with those of your children or partner.
Either way, it’s good to see Roku finally bringing feature parity across their product lineup.
The Freely/Freeview Integration Question
One of my longstanding complaints about Roku TVs has been the disconnect between the Freeview sections and the regular Roku OS sections. This could have been particularly evident with features like ‘What to Watch’.
As I wrote last month when covering Freely’s arrival on Roku TVs, there’s a fundamental disconnect between how Roku handles streaming apps and how it deals with terrestrial TV content.
However, after testing the new features on a Roku TV, I’ve discovered there is – finally – SOME integration between Freeview and the ‘What to Watch’ hub.
The section now includes an “On Freeview Play Now” row which – assuming you have an aerial connected – displays thumbnails from live channels that are currently broadcasting, giving you a quick glimpse of what’s on right now.
It’s not comprehensive – you still can’t add these shows to your Save List, for example, and Freeview’s guide is still not part of Roku’s global search function – but it’s definitely a step in the right direction and shows Roku is finally working to bridge some of the gap between streaming and broadcast content.
I’m hopeful this integration will improve further with the Freely implementation. The potential is there to create a truly unified viewing experience that brings together both streaming and broadcast content in a way that makes sense for viewers.
While there’s still work to be done, this small addition makes the ‘What to Watch’ hub just a bit more useful for those who still rely on traditional broadcast TV alongside their streaming services.
However, keep in mind that this implementation is only possible on Roku TVs, and not on Roku sticks – as it takes those live thumbnails from the terrestrial broadcasts (via the aerial) – which the sticks do not support.
Should You Care About The New Features?
If you’re a Roku TV owner, this update is certainly welcome – more features at no extra cost is always a good thing. The ‘What to Watch’ hub does make content discovery easier, even if it’s not perfect.
The ‘Continue Watching’ feature is probably the most practically useful addition, saving you from having to remember which streaming service had that show you were halfway through.
For those considering buying a new smart TV, this update brings Roku TVs more in line with the feature set of their standalone streaming devices, making them an even better value proposition in a market where truly simple, user-friendly interfaces are increasingly rare.
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