I guess it depends on what it’s and it are. The Roku channel overall is free/ad-supported, but it does allow adding premium (paid) content. However, you should be able to stick to the ad-supported stuff if you prefer.
As far as I know, ShoutTV is free and I have not any seen any message to the contrary.
Just meandered through all the miscellaneous categories and did not see anything that changed requiring payment of any kind.
Are you able to post a screenshot of the message asking for payment. (Use the little camera icon above in the message box to attach photos/screenshots).