Thanks for clarifying your post @bmhoward3, and I'm sorry no one responded to you all for nearly a year.
While I was writing this, I saw that @RokuRhea-V posted about a potential solution that you all could have overlooked by being able to turn off closed captioning after pressing pause while watching the channel's content, but you said @LDF, "I can find captioning but it doesn't have an option to turn off the captioning." I may have misinterpreted what you wrote, but I understand this to mean that when you tried this after pressing pause, the closed caption option may not have been functional due to a technical issue. Am I wrong about that? Perhaps doing this will fix your issue after all.
However, if I'm not wrong, my assumption, as I stated above, backed up by an article I posted a link to in my post above, is that after a year of you all having this issue, this may be because your Roku channel app may no longer be supported by Sony. If I'm right, this would mean that the app is not being updated and therefore the issue cannot be resolved remotely since Roku can't send you an update patch. Hopefully, I'm wrong as perhaps the issue can be resolved if the above solution has worked for you all. But I'm assuming, especially after a year of you all having this issue, that this hasn't been resolved because the version may be stuck on 1.0.73.
I hope I'm wrong and you were able to resolve this with the above suggestion from @RokuRhea-V, but if what I'm saying is true, then you have a few options; none of them are great.
1) If pausing the app's content and changing the closed captions setting doesn't work for you all, you could do nothing and try to ignore the closed captions because at least you can continue using this app to watch free TV.
2) If your smart TV has a browser, you can try this workaround by typing in therokuchannel.roku.com and see if that works. Unfortunately, you won't be able to use your TV remote and have to rely on a mouse and keyboard which could be clunky.
3) If your smart TV's browser isn't all that functional, there might be a way to connect a computer directly or wirelessly to your TV, then go to the website therokuchannel.roku.com and watch it that way. Again, you would need a keyboard and a mouse.
4) If you have a smart device like a phone or tablet, you could download the Roku Channel app on that and allow that to wirelessly connect to your TV. Unlike your TV (unless I'm wrong about the Roku Channel app no longer being supported on your smart TV), the smart device (unless it's ancient) will be able to support newer versions of the Roku Channel app. Then at least you could use the tablet or phone as a remote.
5) Find a different FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) app that allows you to watch free TV (and is supported by your Sony TV with current updates). The Roku Channel app was nice at one point, but now, if I'm right about this -- especially after a year of you all having to deal with this issue, the app might not be supported anymore on your Sony TV (if the above solutions failed to work for you all), so there must be other FAST apps on the app store that you can use to watch free TV. The problem with this is that the shows you watch on The Roku Channel might not be on those other FAST apps.
6) If all the above solutions have failed you all, you have to make a decision: If you find other FAST channels aren't to your liking because they don't have the shows you watch on the Roku Channel, can you live with your free current setup even though you have to deal with closed captions?
The problem you all may have run into (if I'm right about this) is that over time with smart technology, even though there is plenty of free (FAST) content, devices stop being supported and you have to buy a new device by paying a one-time fee so that you can continue to use that technology. There are other options such as OTA (over the air) in which you can purchase an antenna and watch free TV that way, but again you won't be able to watch Roku Channel content, and I've heard that OTA technology may be changing, rendering my OTA digital TV converter box obsolete in the upcoming years, so I would have to purchase a new one to continue watching free TV that way.
If all the above solutions have failed you, I see on the Roku website (as of 4/9/25) that you can get an express for $19.99 (not including tax). Would a one-time fee of $20 be suitable for you all to be able to continue watching The Roku Channel for free without the hassle of seeing closed captions? Another option is to buy an antenna, so you can watch free TV over the air, but again you won't be able to watch the Roku Channel, and that might be more costly than $20. If you just don't want to fork out the $20, perhaps you could find someone who could give you a free used Roku or other such streaming device. I was fortunate enough to get my Roku 3 for free through my cable provider, but that deal is long gone, so I'm not sure how you would go about doing that.
If the above potential solutions have failed you, you might have to resort to one of those options, and if you decide not to do anything, I hope you don't have the same issue that I had with my (now) ancient smart TV in which the channel apps just stopped working.
I'm sorry I can't give you a better option that would stop the closed captioning from appearing if all other solutions from above have failed, but that's unfortunately how it is unless I'm wrong and it really is just a matter of either pausing the app and finding the closed caption option (which perhaps you all overlooked) or having to uninstall the current app and then downloading a newer version of that app if that option is now available after almost a year has passed since the previous thread on this topic was posted.
