Who saw this one coming? Roku surprised a lot of us today (August 5, 2025) when it announced the launch of its new channel, titled “howdy,” for a bargain $3 per month. And without advertisements, too.
Every other streaming channel seems to be getting more expensive and saddling its viewers with more and longer ad breaks, and beloved free channels like Amazon’s Freevee (RIP) are disappearing. It’s heartening to see a new channel launch for, in Big Tech terms, pocket change.
a cheap, ad-free channel?
Roku already makes my favorite TV streaming boxes. Even put up against the best of Google, Apple, and Amazon, I prefer Roku’s user interface and its (mostly) channel-agnostic stance that doesn’t try to nudge front-and-center a first-party channel, the way Apple and Amazon do.
I also prefer its hardware, with the Roku Ultra 4K my preferred weapon of choice when it comes to streaming 4K video. Roku users (such as myself) already know about the Roku Channel, which provides free, ad-supported movies and shows.
Roku’s statement zeroes in on its low price—$3 per month is crazy cheap, especially without ads—but doesn’t say explicitly whether it’ll support 4K resolution or not. It does say that howdy will launch with “thousands of titles and nearly 10,000 hours of entertainment from its inaugural partners, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery, and FilmRise, alongside select Roku Original titles.”
As of right now, howdy will appear on Roku devices, like the Ultra 4K, Streaming Stick 4K, and newly launched budget streaming sticks. Its debut on mobile platforms and other devices will come later.
If anything gives me pause, it’s an extraordinarily trivial thing: the color change. Red and yellow is so profoundly un-Roku-like. Roku has, for many years, leaned heavily into purple as its calling card.
You’ll find Roku’s home screen is perennially bathed in purple. Roku devices’ packaging is overwhelmingly purple. Even Roku remotes are accented in purple. The font used by Roku is playful and casual. It looks like it’s in a freeze-frame as it’s bopping along to music, like an old-timey cartoon.
The new channel’s name “howdy” could be the most whimsical and fun of all streaming channel names (not a hard bar to clear), but the logo sure doesn’t look fun. Rather than a typically cheerful Roku greeting—”Howdy!”—the blocky, stiff-armed text seems to suggest this “howdy” is uttered under the breath of a very tired, very sleep deprived trucker as they plop down into a diner booth.
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