What putting a station on Roku really involves
Making your own Roku channel is less about building an app than about accounts and one key. Roku only accepts a package signed on a Roku device, so even with the channel built for you, someone sits in front of a Roku with a laptop for a while; Primcast's guide puts the first run at about half an hour.
Before starting, that person needs:
- A Roku player (stick, box or Roku TV) on the same Wi-Fi as the computer. Roku's packaging page also says the device has to be linked to your developer account and online when it packages.
- A Roku developer account, opened at developer.roku.com with an ordinary Roku sign-in. Our Roku publishing guide notes it costs nothing to publish a free channel.
- The channel build and store images, downloaded from Build your apps in your Primcast control panel.
- A privacy policy address, which the control panel shows under Publish in the stores.
Whose account should the channel live in?
Open the developer account in the name of whoever owns the station, not in the name of the volunteer or contractor who happens to do the upload. Roku's publishing guide is blunt about this: publish from the account of the organisation that owns the content, and if someone else does the work, add them as a user with the Administrator or App management role. Under Roku's distribution agreement, a channel published from their account can end up being theirs.
Two smaller choices are made at the same moment:
- The publisher name. The name you enter while signing up is the one viewers see as the publisher, so use the station's name, not a personal one.
- The channel name. Roku allows up to 30 characters, never the word Roku, and expects you to hold the rights to the name and any trademark in it.
The signing key: the part to look after
The key you create once with genkey signs every version of your channel, and it is what lets an update land on viewers' sets as the same channel. Roku's packaging docs explain that a package signed with the same key lets each Roku keep the channel's saved data; a different key means a separate store of data on the device. Running genkey prints two values, a password and a developer ID, and you need the password every time you package.
- Save the password and the developer ID in a password manager the station controls, not in one person's notes.
- Keep a copy of each package you upload. If the Roku is reset or replaced, the Rekey option on its browser page restores the key from an earlier package plus its password.
- Before packaging an update, check that the developer ID the Packager shows matches the one you saved.
If the old package or its password is gone, there is nothing to rekey from. Treat the pair as you would the keys to the studio.
Radio and video channels are set up differently
Primcast builds the Roku channel for both radio stations and video channels, from the same Build your apps screen. On the TV, a video build plays your live stream and your library, and a radio build plays the station, so test each on your own set before you package.
| Video channel | Radio station | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the stream comes from | Your live channel and library on live video or video on demand | Your station on radio hosting |
| App type to pick in Roku's App Profile | The type that matches your video content | Audio, which Roku describes as music, podcasts and other sound without video |
| What to test on the TV | Live playback, a few videos, Back from every screen | The station starts, keeps playing, Back exits cleanly |
| After a content change | New videos appear without an update | Stream changes appear without an update |
Roku's dashboard also asks for deep-linking parameters, which let Roku's search and voice open a specific item in your channel. Roku says a channel without them will not pass review, except one that is a single live feed. If you're unsure what to enter for your build, ask us on chat before submitting.
What Roku's review measures
Roku certifies every public channel against a written list of criteria, and a few of them are timed. You can check most of them yourself with a remote and a phone stopwatch while the channel is sideloaded, before Roku ever sees it.
| Roku's rule | What it means | How to check at home |
|---|---|---|
| Home screen ready within 15 seconds | Launch to a fully drawn first screen | Time it from pressing OK on the channel tile |
| Playback starts within 8 seconds | From choosing a stream or video to sound or picture | Try it on your slowest Wi-Fi spot |
| Back goes back one step | On the home screen, Back leaves the channel | Press Back from every screen you can reach |
| Artwork names the channel | Poster 540x405, splash screens that show your identity | Look at the tile and splash on the TV itself |
| Store text within limits | 300 characters on the TV, 1,500 online | Write both before you open the dashboard |
In the dashboard, Roku runs its Static Analysis and App Behavior Analysis tools on the package; Static Analysis errors must be fixed before you can submit, while warnings don't block certification. Roku accepts up to six 1920x1080 screenshots, and the Utilities section of the Roku's own browser page can take them.
Building and sending it with Primcast
The full click-by-click walkthrough lives in our Roku publishing guide. In outline:
- Join Roku's developer program with the station's Roku sign-in.
- Put the Roku into developer mode from the remote and note the address it shows.
- Build Roku in your control panel, download the zip and install it through the Roku's browser page (user
rokudev). - Create the signing key once, then let the Roku's Packager turn the installed channel into the file Roku wants.
- Add a public channel in the dashboard, fill in the store page with the poster from the roku folder of your store images, upload the package and submit it.
Updates follow the same route with the same key. Our publishing guides also cover the other stores, if Roku is only the first screen you want to reach.
Picking a launch date, and when to test with a beta
Roku lets you schedule publishing, but not for just any moment. The earliest date is the second business day after you schedule, and Fridays and weekends can't be chosen. Once the channel is live, Roku says it usually shows in its category within about five minutes (in a category with fewer than 1,000 apps) and in Roku Search within 24 hours, so announce a launch after that, not on the scheduled minute.
Want a few people to try it on their own sets first? Roku's beta channels take up to 20 testers each, installed with an access code and never listed in the store or search. A beta expires 120 days after you create it, and Roku then deletes it and disables it for everyone who installed it, so it can't double as a quiet permanent channel.
When Roku isn't the first place to go
- You plan to charge viewers inside the channel. Roku requires its own payment system, Roku Pay, for subscriptions and rentals, and a channel marked Free in the dashboard can't add other money-making options. Talk to us on chat before choosing anything but Free.
- Your audience listens on phones and in cars. A station app does more for them: see making a radio app for iPhone, Android, CarPlay and Android Auto.
- Your viewers watch on Samsung or LG sets. Those TVs have their own stores; our Smart TV app covers them.
- You'd rather nobody on your side touches a terminal. Creating the key is one typed command, but it can't be skipped, because Roku only accepts packages signed on a Roku.
Questions people ask
- Can I make a Roku channel without writing any code?
- Yes. Primcast's control panel builds the Roku channel for the radio stations and video channels it hosts. Your part is installing it on your own Roku through a web browser, typing one command to create the signing key, and filling in Roku's dashboard. Primcast's guide estimates about half an hour the first time.
- Does Roku charge to publish a channel?
- The developer account is made with your usual Roku sign-in, and our Roku guide notes it costs nothing to publish a free channel. Charging viewers is a different matter: Roku requires Roku Pay for subscriptions and rentals.
- Can a radio station have a Roku channel, or is it only for video?
- Radio works too. Primcast's publishing guides list Roku for both radio and video, and in Roku's App Profile you choose the Audio type, which Roku describes as covering music, podcasts and other audio without video.
- How long before people can find my channel?
- Roku doesn't publish a fixed review time. The earliest publish date you can schedule is the second business day, never a Friday or weekend, and after publishing Roku Search usually catches up within 24 hours. Leave a few days of slack before any announcement.
- Do I need to send Roku an update every time I add videos?
- No. According to our Roku guide, new videos and stream changes show up in the app by themselves. You only package a new version when you rebuild the channel itself, and then you sign it with the same key.