Roku has unveiled plans to launch a free, ad-supported premium sports activities channel on Aug. 12.

The Roku Sports activities Channel will function sports activities the streaming platform owns and licenses as a part of one FAST service. The channel will provide dwell Main League Baseball video games with MLB Sunday Leadoff, The Wealthy Eisen Present talker, dwell System E automobile races, High Rank boxing matches and sports-themed Roku Originals produced with main professional sports activities leagues.

Main streamers spending extra of their content material acquisition {dollars} on sports activities rights has been accompanied by a rise in FAST channels providing premium sports activities, and main streamers like Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel bulking up on leisure content material.

That’s particularly as TV viewers search for cheaper choices to dear subscription-based streaming platforms or packages. In response, paid streaming companies are more and more bundling content material choices with each other to avoid wasting on prices and retain viewers as conventional linear TV channels proceed to face viewers declines as cord-cutting intensifies and shoppers shift on-line.

“We proceed to see audiences benefit from the acquainted, lean-back expertise FAST provides, particularly with sports activities. Sports activities is considered one of our hottest channel genres on The Roku Channel, which makes us so excited to make it even simpler for audiences to leap into Roku’s standout programming,” mentioned Joe Franzetta, Roku Media head of sports activities, in an announcement on Wednesday.

The Roku Sports activities Channel can be launching right into a market the place Walt Disney, Fox Corp and Warner Bros Discovery have proposed introducing a sports activities streaming three way partnership to be generally known as Venu Sports activities.