The test run before the expansion: Inside Roku’s UK FAST launch
Roku’s UK launch leans on U.S. feeds and familiar partners. The real question is what happens in 2026, when local and global finally collide.
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Roku has finally entered the UK FAST channel market 🙌🏻 A great addition to the platform line up for channel owners operating in the UK.
The Roku Channel carries 41 free channels, no subscriptions, no login friction. It may sound like a big arrival knowing how strong Roku is in its home market. It isn’t, at least not yet.
This feels like a soft launch, a test run built from U.S. feeds. Roku wants a foothold before building for the UK market. I expect 2026 to bring the best of global and local feeds. Until then, let’s dive into their genre breakdown, their launch partners, their own & operated channel line up, while comparing notes with market leader, Samsung TV Plus.
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What’s actually on The Roku Channel UK
Roku has focused on genres that are easy to export: reality TV, entertainment, music and sport.
In comparison to Samsung TV Plus, it misses depth of course (it takes time to build a channel line up in a new market) but also certain genres like news, food & travel, crime and kids categories that I would have expected to see live at launch: