The 8 best Roku apps 2015: which are the best channels on Roku?

Roku offers one of the largest app libraries of any streaming service on the market, with over 750 “channels” available.

We sift through what’s available to bring you the top five Roku apps available in the UK right now.

The 5 best Roku apps of 2015:

1. TED

If you’ve never watched a TED talk before, turn on your Roku right now, add the channel and get watching. The famous talk series covers everything from how to deal with prejudice in society to AI to war photography. Whatever you’re interested in, there’s a talk for you on this channel. It’s also updated regularly with new talks, so there will always be something new for you to watch.

2. Plex

Plex is, in general, one of the most interesting and useful apps around. It lets you stream your media, including videos, photos and music to any of your devices, including your Roku player. We thoroughly recommend this app for all your devices and, especially, for the Roku.

3. 4OD

Good news for fans of investigative reporting, hard-hitting drama, fly-on-the-wall documentaries and whatever Made in Chelsea is – 4OD is available on all Roku devices, from the basic Streaming Stick to the top-end Roku 3.

4OD offers catch-up services for the latest episodes of popular TV programmes, like Hollyoaks, Googlebox, Black Mirror, and Channel 4 News, as well as online-only content such as Food Unwrapped, now in its fourth season, and whole series box sets for programmes like Utopia, Peep Show and Father Ted. What’s more, it’s all free.

4. BBC Sport

If you want to catch up on a great range of sport, this is the app for you. The BBC has curated its on-demand sport content into one place here, from football and F1, to athletics and horse racing.

5. Netflix

Yes, Netflix is available on Roku. If you’re already a subscriber, it’s free to add the Netflix channel to your Roku account. This is particularly handy if you’ve got the most portable of Roku’s devices – the Streaming Stick – as you can watch your favourite TV shows and films on the big screen wherever you go just by plugging the device into any HDMI-enabled screen.

6. YouTube

A list of streaming apps wouldn’t be complete without YouTube, and we’ll shamelessly admit to having spent more time using this app to watch stupid videos than any of the others. All the YouTube content available in the UK via the browser is available here, and it has an easily navigable interface as well.

7. Spotify

If you’ve already got a Spotify account, adding Spotify to your Roku channels is a no brainer. If you haven’t, it’s probably still worth signing up for a free acount and trying it out – assuming you like music, of course! Like Plex and Netflix, one Spotify account works across multiple devices, so you can listen to your playlists, or those created by Spotify, on the go as well as in your living room.

8. Dog TV

Yes, Dog TV is exactly what it sounds like – television for dogs. While watching dogs doing stuff on TV may not sound like the most thrilling night in, PC Pro can confirm both dogs and cats find it quite entertaining. The channel was developed specifically with dogs that are left alone for any period of time in mind, stopping them from feeling alone and preventing distructive behaviour through bordem. PC Pro can’t offer any guarantees on the efficacy of the channel to do that, but we’re happy to have our animals entertained.