9 free Roku channels to try

Key Takeaways

Enjoy free movies and TV series on Roku with apps like Tubi, Crackle, Pluto TV, Freevee, and more.
PBS Kids is great for educational and kid-friendly content, while Vevo offers free music videos and playlists.
News junkies can stay updated with free local and national news on the NewsOn app. Get the most out of your Roku with these free channels.

Who has ever complained about free stuff? People seek out deals everywhere, from the farmers market to the appliance store, for a buy-one-get-one-free deal and load up while it lasts. Being able to say that you got an item for free can give you clout over your peers and obviously save you money. Perhaps it’s why so many are seeking to become influencers these days (but that’s a discussion for another day).

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While some may argue that nothing in the world is free, we are happy to accept things that we don’t have to pay for regularly and label them as free. For example, getting cable for free is a reason why digital TV antennae are a huge player in the market. But what if you just wanted to watch some TV shows and movies for free and don’t need to have them live? That’s where a Roku can come into play.

Using a Roku streaming device to download a free channel that gives you series and movies all while not having to pay for a subscription or even a fee for owning a Roku is ideal for anyone trying to pinch pennies. There are a lot of free Roku channels that you can download and enjoy. One of them is even made by Roku itself. If you want to know an easy way to get free content on your TV, here’s a list of some of my top tested free Roku TV channels.

I have all the following channels and watch them frequently on my Roku TV.

Multimedia streaming to TV with remote in foreground

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One of the big reasons why Streaming services are starting to combine and offer bundles is because they are increasingly worried about increased cancelations or “churn” Recently, it was revealed that even though Peacock made a big push to drive signups before the start of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the streamer actually lost over half a million subscribers, in part because they raised prices. This brings me to an interesting question: Have you canceled any streaming services lately? Were you motivated by rising prices, lack of content, or something else? Let us know!

1 The Roku Channel

Tons to offer

The Roku Channel

notable shows: 2 Broke Girls , Billions , Mary & George
Originals: No
Live TV: Yes
Price: Free
Ad plans: Ads included

Let’s start at the top. The Roku Channel is a free channel provided to Roku users to watch on their streaming devices. But The Roku Channel is also available to anyone who wants to sign up for it. You can download The Roku Channel app on your smart TV, even if you don’t have a Roku, and sign into it and enjoy free content.

The Roku Channel is supported by ads, so you will need to sit through commercials.

There is a mix of live TV, classic series, and movies for you to watch. There are plenty of kid-friendly shows on it as well as Quibi short series. The Roku Channel is supported by ads, so you will need to sit through commercials. But you can watch a lot of TV, movies, and more on this free channel. Plus, the series and movies are constantly rotating, so you aren’t stuck with the same 20 things to watch all the time.

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2 Tubi

On-demand oasis

Pocket-lint

Tubi

notable shows: Hemlock Grove , Babylon 5 , Spartacus , Gotham , Columbo
notable movies: Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead , Child’s Play , White House Down , Knives Out , It
Premium Subscription: No
Originals: Yes
Live TV: 200+ channels

Tubi is a similar kind of service that offers free movies and TV series for you to stream. You can either sign up with your email address to create a free account or continue as a guest every time you log in. What’s great about Tubi is it has a ton of movies and series in its on-demand library.

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You can also watch shows live as there is a select number of HD channels for free. The amount depends on where you live. Tubi’s interface is very easy to navigate as the platform makes it easy to find hidden gems that you may have never seen before. There’s a wide range of films that are good for all kinds of viewers.

3 Crackle

Another good mix

Crackle

notable shows: The Red Green Show , The Dick Cavett Show , Merlin
notable movies: Blackthorn , Bad Milo , Goon , Centurion
Premium Subscription: No
Originals: Yes
Live TV: No

Remember when Crackle was the place where you could find Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee? That seems like a long time ago, but the free streamer has been around a while and offers big-time movies and lesser-known shows. You can find some superb action movies and blockbusters and some lesser known TV series, such as the ones seen in the photo above. Crackle does not offer live TV but it does over some Crackle exclusives that you can only get on the streaming service.

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4 Pluto TV

The closest feel to cable

Pluto TV

pluto tv

notable shows: The Andy Griffith Show , Sanford and Son , The Twilight Zone , Charmed
notable movies: Top Gun , Trading Places , Mission Impossible , Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Premium Subscription: No
Originals: No
Live TV: 250+ channels

Remember what it’s like searching on the guide of your cable TV? You’re going to have the unique experience when you use Pluto TV because it will remind you of cable. That’s because the layout looks like a guide and the programming is picked by humans, not algorithms. There are TV channels with live shows, and you can enjoy MTV, TV Land, BET and more.

You can also enjoy specific channels, like Jeopardy!, which is just non-stop episodes of the shows, or 70s Cinema, which is films from the 1970s. Speaking of movies, you can search for what you want based on genre. There is also a wide selection of Spanish channels, and you can also watch music videos easily on this.

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5 Freevee

It’s more than just Jury Duty

Amazon Freevee

notable shows: Jury Duty , Bosch: Legacy , Judy Justice , Lost , The X-Files
notable movies: Sing 2 , EXmas , Stillwater , Old , Last Night in Soho
Premium Subscription: No
Originals: Yes
Live TV: 400+ channels

Jury Duty was a massive hit last year and was a Freevee original. Freevee was previously IMDB TV and was purchased by Amazon in 2022. Since then, Amazon has put free versions of its Prime Video shows on Freevee. There’s a robust amount of TV series and films on Freevee, but not as much as Amazon offers on Prime Video.

There are thousands of titles to be watched and all of them are ad-supported, so you’ll be sitting through commercials to watch them all for free. Freevee also offers live TV channels, making it a well-rounded platform. The interface looks similar to Prime Video, so if you’ve navigated that, you’ll be able to navigate it easily.

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6 PBS Kids

Great pick for children

PBS Kids

notable shows: Sesame Street , Mister Roger’s Neighborhood , curious george
Premium Subscription: Yes, $5.99 per month
Originals: Yes
Live TV: Yes, Just PBS

For anyone who wants to focus on kid-friendly programming, PBS Kids is the app you want. This is powered by PBS, so parents can rest assured that it is educational programming. It takes the shows that you can watch on PBS’s channel and enjoy them on a streaming app. Some of the shows that your kids love are easily on-demand without the need for a cable subscription, including Arthur, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Sesame Street.

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7 Fandango at Home

Formerly Vudu

Fandago at Home

Price: Free
notable shows: House of the Dragon , The Boys , Yellowstone
notable movies: The Hating Game

Vudu was known as one of the best movie platforms in streaming. Vudu was purchased by Fandango, but it still offers the ability to watch free movies. You can watch older movies for free, or you’ll have the opportunity to purchase movies and store them in your library or rent new movies for a few hours. You also have the option to purchase movie codes and add them to your library. You can sort by year, production company, Rottten Tomatoes scores, and more.

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8 NewsOn

Local news at your fingertips

NewsOn

notable shows: NBC Nightly News , ABC News Nightline
Originals: No
Live TV: Yes
Library: Local and national news, as well as breaking news
Price: Free

For the news junkie, NewsOn lets you watch free local news and keep up with what’s going on in your area. It takes note of where you are and automatically populates local news stations to the app. You can also watch Breaking News to see what is currently happening. There are also free national streams from across the United States that you can tune in on. It includes over 275 channels in over 160 markets, so there are plenty of channels that are available to viewers across America.

9 Vevo

Watch music videos

Vevo Music Videos

Live TV: Yes
Price: Free
Originals: Yes
Library: Filled with specialty playlists, new releases, short films, live sessions, and more

If you’ve watched music videos on YouTube, you likely have watched Vevo music videos. Vevo offers its own channel on Roku for free, and you can get the party going by putting on a channel and enjoying it. It offers curated programming that people can choose, or they can search for a specific music style. You can watch live channels or search for artists you like. Get HD music channels or videos for free in just a few clicks.