Roku Update Adds Search by Price Feature, Voice-Based Search for Roku 3 Player

Roku began rolling out Roku Feed, a new search feature that allows consumers to see when streaming entertainment becomes available and at what price. Roku Feed initially will focus on “Movies Coming Soon,” which a Monday Roku blog post said ends the “guessing game around when a box office hit is available for streaming, which services offer the movie or how much it costs at a given time.” Consumers can search for movies, TV shows, actors and directors, and receive all available results listed by price from 17 top streaming channels, the company said. Roku also added the ability to search within the Roku Channel Store by channel name, allowing quicker searches by channels such as CBS News, HBO GO and Sling TV, it said. On the hardware side, Roku introduced a second-generation Roku 3 player ($99) with voice search and a new remote control incorporating a microphone, voice search button and headphone jack for private listening, a company spokesman told us. Current Roku 3 players will receive a software update including the Roku Feed feature and the ability to search within the Roku Channel Store, the spokesman said. Roku mobile apps are also being updated, and users will be able to search by voice using the iOS and Android apps on a smartphone or tablet, he said.