Now you can watch the Roku Channel without a Roku box

Roku, the company that makes those little boxes that stream online video to your television, has a free streaming channel called the Roku Channel. You may not know this if you don’t have one of said boxes, but it’s good information since now you don’t need a Roku player to watch it.

After creating a free Roku account, you can watch free, ad-supported films, TV shows, digital shorts, and even live broadcasts at TheRokuChannel.com from any browser. The content comes from a wide array of Roku’s established partners — companies who’ve already been bringing their content to Roku’s physical streaming devices. 

Those partners include OVGuide and FilmRise as well as major studios like Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and Paramount. Roku established licensing deals with many of them when the Roku Channel first launched on Roku devices last September. Live content is provided by outlets such as ABC News and Cheddar.

With the likes of Netflix and Amazon — and sometimes Apple — dominating the conversation around streaming, it bears reminding that Roku is still the market leader in internet video streaming devices. And the Roku Channel is an important step for the company; before it launched, Roku hadn’t positioned itself as a content platform per se. With the Roku Channel expanding to the web, the company is arguably making its first cross-platform move.

For owners of Roku’s physical devices: There’s something new for you, too. Along with the web-based channel, Roku has also announced it will soon be rolling out a new section on its Roku devices called Featured Free, which will aggregate popular free content from across Roku’s partners and channels.