Hidden Roku trick to legally add 500 live TV channels after new upgrade – and you’ll get 20,000 movies and shows too
A POPULAR free streaming app for Roku TVs has been upgraded with bonus channels.
It means the total number of free channels on the app is bigger than ever – and doesn’t cost you a penny.
Roku has dozens of apps that serve up totally free TV supported by ads.
And one of those is Local Now, an app primarily designed for news streaming.
The app has just added two new channels: 48 Hours and Declassified.
This brings the total to more than 500 free live channels.
And if you want on-demand content, there’s a selection of more than 20,000 movies and shows.
Local Now is also available on Amazon Fire TV devices – just check the Amazon app store.
If you are using Roku, you’ll want to simply check the regular channel store for the free download.
STREAM DREAM
Local Now isn’t the only game in town when it comes to free streaming.
There’s a long list of apps that offer no-cost television in exchange for you watching commercials.
For instance, Plex is a popular option that many people miss.
That’s because Plex started life as a way to share your own saved content to other screens.
This allowed you to create a kind of personal Netflix.
But in late 2019, Plex began offering ad-supported streaming.
It now has a massive library of over 1,100 channels, of which more than 800 are available in the US.
FREE STREAMING! Apps offer no-cost TV
Here are some of the most popular apps that offer at least some free streaming content...
- Tubi
- Amazon Freevee
- Plex TV
- The Roku Channel
- Sling Freestream (via Sling TV)
- FilmRise
- NewsON
- Fawesome TV
- Pluto TV
- Local Now
- Haystack News
- Red Bull TV
- Free Movies Plus
- PBS Kids Video
- PBS
- Xumo Play
Another tempting option is Amazon Freevee.
You can find this inside Amazon Prime Video, but it’s also available as a standalone offering.
It was originally called IMDb Freedive and then IMDbT TV, before eventually rebranding to Freevee in April 2022.
This app has more than 400 live TV channels and over 15,000 movies and shows – all available for free.
Stream swapping – the easy way to cut your bills?
Here’s what Sean Keach, The Sun’s Head of Technology and Science, thinks…
It’s no secret that TV streaming apps are costing more and more.
Not only are prices shooting up, but we find ourselves asked to pay for an increasing number of apps and services.
And when you combine those TV bills with your music streaming, mobile and internet fees, and every other drain on your bank account, it all starts to get a bit much.
One of the best ways to cut your TV bills is to simply cancel all of your streaming subscriptions and only sign up to one per month.
Pick an app like Netflix, Disney+, or Apple TV+ and smash through all of the content you want to watch on that app.
Then the next month, swap to something else.
And once you’ve done them all, you can cycle back to the start again.
It’s an easy way to avoid forking out for a rolling library of streaming apps with more content than you could possibly watch.
Also don’t forget that paid-for streaming isn’t the only game in town.
There are loads of apps that don’t cost a penny to enjoy, and downloading a few will unlock thousands of live TV channels plus tens of thousands of movies and shows.
Try apps like Tubi, Amazon Freevee, The Roku Channel, Plex, and Pluto TV to get some ad-supported television without having to pay any monthly fees.
And another easy-to-miss option is Sling Freestream.
It’s considered “hidden” because you’ll find it tucked inside the main Sling TV app – which is normally paid for.
So you might never download Sling TV, and miss out on loads of free content.
The roster of channels numbers more than 500, as well as 40,000 on-demand movies and shows.