When it comes to streaming tvall sports fans want to do is watch the big games with as little hassle as possible.
But as games have expanded to more and more different streaming services, it’s become harder to know which subscriptions you need to see which games.
Streaming giant Roku is trying to solve this problem by creating a centralized place to find streaming sports content with its new “Sports” experience tool. This tool, launched on November 10, 2022is free for all Roku users.
You still need multiple memberships live tv streaming services to stream many games, though. And even some traditionally-video on demand oriented services, such as AppleTV+, Peacock and Paramount+began acquiring exclusive streaming rights for sporting events.
Let’s see how you can find the Sports tool and what it has to offer.
How to find the new Roku Sports tool
To find the new Sports tool on your Roku device, just scroll down the menu on your home screen until you see the “Sports” option.
You can also use the search for “sports” or related words like the name of a team or league in Roku Search or by using Roku Voice. This should take you to the new Sports hub.
You’ll want to make sure your Roku device has the latest updates installed to ensure it has the latest menu options.
Contents of the new Roku Sports tool
So now that you’ve found the new tool, you’re probably wondering how it will save you time and confusion.
The pitch is simple: rather than clicking from one streaming service to another, you’ll have one place to search and browse all the games available to watch live. This will allow you to more quickly locate the game you want to watch and go to the streaming service that offers it.
Alex Hill, Director of Live and Sports Content at Roku, explains the inspiration for the concept:
“We know that knowing where sports are streamed has only become more fragmented over the past few years. Watching your favorite teams should be simple, so we made it a priority to create a more transparent way and streamlined way to discover and watch sports on our platform. Sports is an essential part of the streaming experience, and we will continue to make improvements to this experience, such as adding more supported providers and finding new ways for our users to follow their favorite teams.
In the new Sports experience, users will see live and upcoming matches sorted by teams, leagues, conferences and more.
Roku says that when you click on the thumbnail of a game you want to watch, you’ll see options for that event from supported channels.
This screen should offer options to click on the streaming services showing the game, as shown below:
If you’re signed into an existing subscription on your Roku device, this menu should let you choose that service and take you to streaming that game through that app.
The new Roku release says users can also choose to “select different areas specific to individual sports or leagues to view live and upcoming games or events, discover content specific to their favorite leagues, or explore rows. free sports content”.
The Roku Channelwhich is Roku’s free streaming service, recently launched native free sports content of this application. This includes popular shows such as The Rich Eisen Show (which previously aired on Peacock) and Emeril Lagasse’s new show “Emeril Tailgates”.
What streaming services are supported?
Roku says the Sports experience is supported by access to the following platform’s sports menus:
- AppleTV
- DIRECTV
- FOX Sports
- Fubo TV
- Paramount+
- Peacock
- First video (Amazon)
- Sling
- The Roku Channel
- DTT
- TBS
- truTV
The press release says more viewing options will be added in the coming months, but on the surface that leaves gaps in the coverage of apps that could potentially stream live professional and college sports.
Some popular apps that stream live sports that are not mentioned in this release include:
- Hulu + Live TV
- YouTube Television
- Vidgo
- ESPN and ESPN+
- MLB.TV
- NBA League Pass
- NFL Sunday Ticket
- Bally Sports+
Final Thoughts
Whereas Cut the rope Ditching the expensive cable bill has many benefits, easily finding sporting events is not one of them. Kudos to Roku for trying to fix this issue for its users.
If you have a Roku streaming dongle or a Roku TV, I highly recommend giving it a try. There is no cost to check it out if you already have a Roku device.
And since Roku says a more robust menu of streaming services will be available in the coming months, you might want to give it an extended test to see if the results improve over time.
Cut the cord and have a system to stream your favorite sports? We would love to hear about it in the Clark.com Community.
