11 votes

Roku launching Howdy, a $3/month Ad-Free subscription service

8 comments

  1. Oodelally
    Link
    While I enjoy competition in the industries, it usually just ends up with like 1 or 2 pieces of content I actually want to watch locked behind a service I'll never pay for. Like Paramount. I'd...

    While I enjoy competition in the industries, it usually just ends up with like 1 or 2 pieces of content I actually want to watch locked behind a service I'll never pay for. Like Paramount. I'd watch star trek, but... paramount.

    And instead of competition driving down prices, it's only lead to increase in prices with worse service like ads for things I never used to have to watch ads for.

    12 votes
  2. [3]
    DFGdanger
    Link
    (From Canada, if it matters)

    You’ve navigated to a page that no longer exists.

    (From Canada, if it matters)

    5 votes
    1. moocow1452
      Link Parent
      Unfortunate.

      At this time, Howdy is only available to users in the United States.

      Unfortunate.

      5 votes
    2. Wafik
      Link Parent
      Ah, that explains it. Canadian's being blocked out of American streaming services must be like how Quebec feels about always being left out of contests.

      Ah, that explains it. Canadian's being blocked out of American streaming services must be like how Quebec feels about always being left out of contests.

      2 votes
  3. ButteredToast
    Link
    This is no doubt intended as an upsell for Roku devices, but I think they’re missing out on a considerable amount of basically free money by not supporting other smart TV platforms. I’m never...

    This is no doubt intended as an upsell for Roku devices, but I think they’re missing out on a considerable amount of basically free money by not supporting other smart TV platforms. I’m never going to use anything that’s not either a standalone Apple TV or maybe an Nvidia Shield TV, certainly not a Roku anything with how hungry those things are for user data of all kinds, so here’s at least one person who will never subscribe.

    To my knowledge, the only smart TV device vendors that lock their streaming services to their devices are Samsung and now Roku. Both Apple and Amazon for example have apps for competing devices.

    5 votes
  4. JXM
    Link
    Basically a low cost streaming service in the style of the original vision of Netflix Instant Streaming, where it was just cast off stuff that the studios didn't think was worth much. That's not...

    Basically a low cost streaming service in the style of the original vision of Netflix Instant Streaming, where it was just cast off stuff that the studios didn't think was worth much. That's not to say the content is bad (I mean, they've got Weeds and Nurse Jackie so they have some critically lauded shows).

    It'll be interesting to see how fast they raise the price. Disney+ started out at like $4 per month and now it's more than twice that price.

    4 votes
  5. EgoEimi
    Link
    I have never heard of any of the titles highlighted on that marketing page.

    I have never heard of any of the titles highlighted on that marketing page.

  6. cloud_loud
    Link
    I wonder if the other big FAST channel will do this, Tubi

    I wonder if the other big FAST channel will do this, Tubi