Roku Adds Major League Baseball to Growing Internet-on-Demand Content Kingdom

The future of television may be happening on a tiny little box that a majority of Americans probably know nothing about. Roku started making waves in May 2008 when it hooked up with Netflix to provide a way to take the red envelope's streaming movie rental service directly to a subscriber's television.

Netflix provides access to thousands of movies and tv shows on demand through Roku and other players, but most of those entertainment options are dated. If you want to watch a newer film or the latest episode of "30 Rock," Amazon's Video On Demand link provides pay per view for Roku owners.

This week, the "over the top" distribution model took a major step forward, as Major League Baseball agreed to stream every major league game, subject to blackout restrictions, through Roku until the end of the season.

MLB has offered a streaming service for computer users for the past two seasons, but this agreement will let baseball fans watch almost any game they want, on their big screen television. Along with live game feeds, the service offers DVR function, letting you pause, rewind, or fast forward game day action.

MLB requires you subscribe to their MLB.TV Premium service in order to access games through the Roku. The cost of the last month and a half of the baseball season is $34.95, or you can purchase a monthly subscription for $19.99.

Increasing on demand content like this could one day make cable tv service obsolete. Most cable tv customers say they enjoy watching 20 to 30 channels, and beyond that, the rest is just filler. Under the Internet on tv model, viewers would pay a nominal monthly fee for access to a "channel's" content. In the case of MLB, that's over 100 live baseball games a week.

Since Roku remains a relatively new device, its' content pails compared to what cable tv currently provides. But, Roku's website insists the company doesn't plan to stop with three content partners. The digital video player is designed with expansion in mind, and can easily be updated via its Internet connection.

Roku requires a broadband Internet connection to grant access to video content. It can be connected to a television via an HDMI cable to send High Definition video streams. The device costs $99 and only bridges the gap between content providers. It can be purchased at Roku.com or through Amazon.

Source: http://www.roku.com/mlb-partner