If you’re a Ruku user there’s some potentially bad news headed your way this weekend. Even worse, if you planned on watching the Super Bowl through your Roku device you might have a problem doing it. [Update Jan. 31, 2020: Roku announced an agreement had been made to keep FOX channels streaming. Roku customers can stream the Super Bowl on thee FOX Now and FOX Sports apps. Scroll down to see more ways to watch.]
Roku announced they would be pulling all of its Fox stations on Saturday, Feb. 1st because of a failure to come to a distribution agreement.
According to Roku, “We have tried for months to get FOX to sign an agreement and we offered FOX an extension but they declined.”
From FOX’s perspective, “Roku’s threat to delete FOX apps from its customers’ devices is a naked effort to use its customers as pawns.”
The two companies have had some particularly nasty words for each other, and unfortunately, the end customer will have to suffer.
Channels that will be dropped from Roku include Fox Now, Fox Sports, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Soccer, Big Ten Network, and Fox Nation.
So if Roku loses FOX channels what can you do?
If the two parties don’t come to an agreement by Sunday, Roku has suggested streaming the Super Bowl on fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, or YouTube TV — many of which offer a free trial period.
Comcast or Spectrum cable subscribers, the game will stream on the Xfinity or Spectrum apps on Roku devices. And, if you’ve got an antenna hooked up to a Roku TV FOX can’t block you from watching over-the-air signals.
In addition, NFL will stream the Super Bowl free on the app for Roku devices, although FOX could black the channel out.
It’s still Friday, so maybe an agreement will keep the FOX stations on Roku. We’ll keep you updated with the latest.
[Updated: Feb. 1, 2020]
