Roku lets anyone watch local news for free: How to find your NBC, ABC, and CBS stations
Source: ZDNet
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Roku lets you easily watch local news broadcasts for free.
- The feature tracks your location and shows your local affiliates.
- You can also watch national news broadcasts.
If you pay for a streaming service like YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV mostly for news, there’s a Roku feature you’ll want to pay attention to.
Roku has a fairly robust—and free—live TV lineup that many people aren’t aware of. With hundreds of channels covering nearly any topic, it’s a great choice if you’re looking to save some money on streaming, and the lineup is growing constantly.
Also: Your Roku TV has 100+ free live channels – here’s how to watch them (and what’s available)
Among those channels is an easy way to watch your local news stations for free. The feature uses geolocation to aggregate local news feeds from your Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates (ones that are available online, at least), meaning your local stations are always at the top of the list. The feature isn’t new, but a recent redesign makes your local channels a lot easier to find.
Most news stations have their own app these days, but an option like this makes it easier to switch between stations or to switch over to local news if you’re watching something else.
How to watch your local news for free
- Open The Roku App (preinstalled on most Roku devices; also available for any smart TV).
- Choose Live TV from the menu on the left.
- Scroll past categories like Featured and Trending Now until you see Local News Near You.
- Your local major news stations will be listed, and you can pull up their streams directly.
- Below that category, you’ll find options for national and international news streams such as CNN, CBS, and NBC News, plus several weather channels.
- To check the news for another city, use the category for local news streams from across the country.