How to watch live TV on your Roku device

Sure, you can watch a ton of on-demand content using your Roku device. However, there are those times when you just want to sit and watch some good old-fashioned TV. If you want to watch live TV on your Roku device, but you don’t know how to, then here’s a useful guide.

We’ll talk about how to watch live TV on your device, and we’ll also talk about how to navigate the live TV section to find just what you want to watch. There are actually different ways for you to access live TV content on your Roku device, and we’ll talk about those ways as well.

How to watch live TV on your Roku device

Before you start, just know that you’ll need to have your device set up with all of your information. Also, while this is live TV, you will still need to connect your device to the internet to access it. When your device is set up, then you can jump into the live TV.

Live TV section

When you start your device, you’ll land on the home screen. The right side of the screen will show all of your apps, and the left side will show you the list of sections. Right under the Home section, you’ll see the Live TV section.

Press the down button on your controller and you’ll see the right side change. Press right on the controller, and you’ll fully open the live TV section.

When you open the section, you’ll see a horizontally scrolling feed of tiles. This will show you the featured content. The feed consists of shows and channels that are the most popular at the moment. There’s a healthy selection of channels that you can choose from in the featured section, so you’ll probably find something to watch right then and there.

If you don’t, then you can press down. Below the featured channels, you’ll see the main selection of channels for you to watch, and they’ll all be separated into different categories

These categories include different genres of TV such as reality, drama, documentaries, crime, game shows, sci-fi, etc. There are also other categories like black movies & TV, movies, trending, recommended, etc. There is a ton of content to choose from, so feel free to dive in.

TV guide

If you want to see what shows are playing rather than the channels, you can go straight to the TV guide. When you first entered the live TV section, the very first tile you saw was the Live TV Channel Guide. When you select that tile, you’ll see the classic-style TV guide with a scrolling list of channels and shows to watch.

This is just like a classic TV guide in that you’ll see the channel numbers on the left side of the screen. If you’re not used to most internet live TV, then some of the channels will look weird to you. Most of the channels will be like regular TV channels with a ton of different shows, but there are some channels dedicated to only one show.

While you’re watching a show, you’ll press the left button to access the guide. Press the OK button to see information about the episode that you’re watching. It will tell you information like the title, the season and episode number, and the episode description.

Managing the guide

While in the guide, press the left button again to highlight the actual channel you’re on. When you do that, press the * button to access some options for the channel. In the options panel, you’ll be able to add that channel to your Favorites or hide it.

If you press left one more time, you’ll see a side panel appear. This will show you sections that curate the channels in different ways. Under the All channels section, you’ll see the Favorites section. Under that, you’ll see Recommended section with channels curated based on your activity. Lastly, the Recents section will show the channels you most recently watched.

Under those sections, you’ll see a long list of genres. Each genre will filter all of the channels so that you’ll only see the channels in that genre.

Unhiding channels

If you accidentally hide a channel and you want to get it back, it’s pretty simple to do so. Press the left button so that you’re highlighting a channel. Then, press the * button to summon the options. Select the Manage channels button near the bottom.

When you do that, you’ll see a panel come in from the left of the screen. You’ll see two options; select the Edit channel line-up option. When you do that, you’ll see a list of all of the channels with checkboxes next to them. If you’ve hidden a channel, you’ll see it checked. Uncheck it to unhide the channel.

Other live TV apps

If you don’t like the line-up of shows that are present in the live TV section, you can use other apps to gain access to live TV shows. What’s fortunate is that Roku lists those apps in the live TV section, so you don’t have to hunt them down. When you open the live TV section, scroll down a few sections until you see the list of apps.

This list includes apps like ESPN, Hulu Sling, Amazon Prime, Peacock, Apple TV, etc. This list will also have some recommendations for shows and channels to watch. Just know that you’ll need to have an active subscription to the apps before you can use them.

If you know about an app that offers live TV, but it’s not in the section, then you can download it. Go to the Home screen and press the right button. Then, scroll down until you see the Add Channels button. When you do that, you’ll enter the Roku app store. There, you can hunt down the app that you want to download.

There’s a search feature in the store that will let you type the name of the app that you want to download. When you find the app, select it and select the Add channel button.