Roku streaming devices get official Apple TV app ahead of Apple TV+ launch
We're only a couple of weeks away from the commercial launch of the highly anticipated Apple TV+ platform, and after finally bringing its media player app to Samsung smart TVs back in May, the Cupertino-based tech giant is today further expanding support to Roku streaming devices.
To be perfectly clear, we're talking about the free Apple TV app rather than the Apple TV digital media player or paid Apple TV+ video on demand service. But Apple TV is also set to function as a central hub for Apple TV+ starting November 1, which means owners of select Roku streamers (some older models excluded) will be fully supported from day one of the latter's availability.
In addition to being able to subscribe for Apple TV+ directly from the Apple TV app on their media streaming players by paying $4.99 a month (after a one-week free trial), Roku users can now effortlessly access their existing iTunes video library, buy or rent new titles from a selection of over 100,000 movies and TV shows, as well as subscribe to Apple TV channels with nothing but their Apple ID and password.
The Apple TV app is available on the Roku Channel Store in the US, as well as a number of international markets including Argentina, Canada, France, Mexico, Peru, Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom to name but a few. The collaboration between Apple and Roku, which may have seemed unlikely not that long ago, is part of the former's broader efforts to break into the lucrative but increasingly crowded video streaming industry and challenge Netflix's market supremacy across hardware devices and software platforms.
Up next, we should see Amazon's Fire TV devices add official support for Apple TV and TV+, although we don't know exactly when that might happen.
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