I have been watching Revenge for about a year on the Roku channel. As of today, it can only be seen on a subscription basis. I am already paying for Spectrum and Amazon Prime, I can't pick up another cost, this is just plain wrong for Roku to do this.
With rare exceptions, Roku does not own the programs they carry. They must license them, basically "rent" them, from their owners. License/rent agreements expire, and when they do Roku can no longer carry the program.
What they COULD do better, though, is give people better advance notice of when programs are going to expire.
I assumed that's how it works, but it would be nice if Roku made an attempt to continue programming instead of just making an excuse why they can't. I saw other posts on this subject since mine.
Contracts for content often assume the shows will be watched more frequently than that. For example, on a linear TV, it’s common for an old show to be run 5 days a week, and after a show has been shown once or twice, it’s time for something else. Many streaming contracts likewise assume that shows are consumed fairly quickly.
For what it’s worth, with only 90 episodes, a year seems like a fairly long run for a rerun on commercial TV.
