Roku Deal with Showtime, Starz Is 'Just the Beginning' of Premium Content Plans: Roku VP
*By Amanda Weston*
Roku's new content partnership with Showtime, Starz, and other premium channels is "just the beginning" of a greater expansion into paid content, the company's VP of programming and engagement told Cheddar Thursday.
Roku [announced Wednesday](https://newsroom.roku.com/press-release/press-releases-usa/roku-adds-premium-subscriptions-roku-channel) it is expanding The Roku Channel to include "premium subscriptions." The new content is in addition to the more than 10,000 free ad-supported movies and TV episodes already available.
Users can browse, try out, and subscribe to popular services.
"We continue to have a really robust offering of just free ad-supported content within The Roku Channel," Rob Holmes, VP of programming and engagement at Roku, told Cheddar Thursday. "But we recognized that there's also a lot of great subscription content out there. And so our goal is really to try to make it as easy as possible for users to find great content on the platform, and we knew that this was another part of the experience that we could bring to it."
Holmes said the expansion is also "a great opportunity for partners."
"The Roku Channel right now is one of the top five most popular channels on the Roku platform," Holmes said. "We have a lot of users, a lot of usage, and so for these partners the opportunity for them was to engage with our user base and to be able to make it easier for users to discover them, to sort of browse and understand what those services were, to see all the great content that's available inside of them, and then to make it really simple for them to sign up."
Roku also announced a development in mobile. Its app will soon let users watch content from The Roku Channel anytime and anywhere within the U.S.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/roku-users-can-now-explore-showtime-starz-and-more).
The Campbell’s Co. said Tuesday it has placed one of its executives on leave while it investigates claims that he made racist comments and mocked the company’s products and customers in an audio recording.
Elon Musk’s X unveiled a feature that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts, often posting in support of the U.S. MAGA movement with thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the U.S. This raises concerns about foreign influence in U.S. politics.
The Enhanced Games is going public in two ways — with a new listing on the Nadsaq stock exchange and also by offering a direct-to-consumer business focused on performance products.
Real estate software company RealPage has agreed to stop sharing nonpublic information between landlords as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice.
Thanksgiving travel is set to smash records as millions fly, drive, and ride despite FAA disruptions and economic uncertainty. Here’s what you need to know.
AI, BNPL and new digital tools are reshaping holiday shopping. PayPal’s Michelle Gill shares survey insights, tech trends, and tips for smarter spending in 2025
'The Chair Company' blends sharp satire with workplace conspiracy. Lake Bell joins us to talk its corporate themes, quirky characters, and why viewers love it!
It's a tough time for the job market. Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. At the same time, some sizeable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors. Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs due to U.S.'s new tariffs, while others have redirected money to artificial intelligence investments. Workers in the public sector have also been hit hard. Federal jobs were cut by the thousands earlier this year. And many workers are now going without pay as the U.S. government shutdown has now dragged on for more than a month.
