You love the Roku but you hate your smart TV? All your dreams might soon come true, because Roku is putting its technology inside of an actual television set, available in the coming months.
The TVs themselves will be manufactured by TCL and Hisense, but inside they’ll be all Roku Player. Meaning, these TVs will offer up the same experience you’ve come to know and love from a Roku box rolled into a a flatscreen setup.
This is a smart place for Roku to elbow its way into, especially considering most smart TV interfaces are a pain to navigate, whereas Roku Player is simple and headache-free. Roku hasn’t given us a ton of specifics here, but we know there will be six models ranging in size from 32- to 55-inches. Prices are TBD, but Roku told us they’ll be “comparable” with competitors’ offerings. Regardless, this is something we’re excited to see first-hand.
Roku Players have never been sold in Australia, but the TCL and Hisense crowd might just bring one to our shores in 2014. We’ll have to wait and see.