Channels & viewing

[jimolson]

When I fired up my new Roku box last night I noticed about 80 local TV stations in the range of Channel 4100 to Channel 4180.  In the age of retransmission battles between cable/satellite companies and local stations, how can Roku offer these stations for free?  And why aren't my local stations complaining about out-of-market network affiliates being brought into their territory by Roku?

[makaiguy]

@jimolson-

On what channel app are you seeing this?  The Roku Channel, for me, tops off at channel 1104.

[jimolson]

I'm such a new Roku user that I'm not sure what a "channel app" is. 

When I created a Roku account to turn the box on the first time I provided no credit card information.  For the moment I have no access to Roku's paid services, nor have I given my Roku account any of my login info for various streaming services I currently subscribe to.

I get to Roku channels 4100 through 4180 by going to "live channels" and indexing with the UP button for quite awhile. 

I agree with those who say that Roku needs a remote with direct channel number entry provisions.

[Anonymous]

All those channels in the four thousands are news, produced by the affiliates and not part of the network negotiations, as I understand it. IOW, don't expect to see any network primetime programming there; just news. 

Depending on when I bring up the program guide, I may or may not see those channel numbers, the guide being such a broken POS. 

[jimolson]

Ah, that's the perfect answer and explains the presence of the channels.  These 41xx channels are not a substitute for actual local off-airs.

Thanks for telling me that.