'Westworld' and other canned HBO shows are now streaming on Roku for free
More than 2,000 hours of Warner Bros. Discovery content is available across 14 ad-supported channels.
A boatload of HBO series and other Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shows and movies are now available to watch for free on Roku. The Roku Channel now includes 14 ad-supported channels that are streaming more than 2,000 hours of WBD content, including shows like Westworld, The Nevers and Raised by Wolves, all of which vanished from HBO Max a few months ago.
In January, WBD struck deals with Roku and Tubi for free, ad-supported streaming (aka FAST) channels. Three of the cable-style channels debuted on Tubi in early February, but it took a little longer for them all to land on Roku.
The channels are each focused on different areas. There's one for fan-favorite shows like the canceled Westworld and Nikita (WB TV Watchlist), another centered around docuseries such as How It’s Made and How the Earth Works (WB TV How To), a channel for classic movies (WB TV At The Movies) and even one for baking competition series (WB TV Sweet Escapes). Licensing out content for streaming on FAST channels will give WBD another revenue stream as it tries to improve its bottom line — WBD posted a net loss of $2.1 billion for the last three months of 2022.
The channels are arriving on Roku just before WBD folds Discovery+ content into HBO Max as part of a combined streaming service sometime this spring. Discovery+ will remain as a standalone streaming service in the US. It's believed that the souped-up HBO Max won't immediately become more expensive. WBD raised the price of the ad-free HBO Max plan for the first time in January.
The company has yet to reveal the name of the new streaming service, though reports indicate that it will simply be called "Max" (shudder). We won't have to wait much longer to find out, though. WBD plans to spill the beans at an event on April 12th.
