Amazon, Apple, and Google all want to sell you media streaming hardware so that you'll also buy streaming media from them, or do other things that earn money within their ecosystems. Roku, on the other hand, is quite happy selling us media boxes, sticks, and even TVs. And now choosing Roku comes with the added bonus of hundreds of free movies to watch.

Today, Roku announced the introduction of The Roku Channel. It's a new channel available to all Roku players and Roku TVs within the US. Loading it up will present the viewer with access to hundreds of movies, which they can watch for free thanks to each of them being ad-supported. If you don't like adverts, then this isn't the channel for you.

The movies on offer have been sourced from major studios including Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Warner Brothers, and will join existing content on the Roku platform provided by American Classics, FilmRise, Popcornflix, Vidmark, and YuYu.

According to TechCrunch, Roku signed licensing deals with the studios in order to gain access to a new selection of popular movies. Now it needs to sell ad space around them to turn this into a profitable venture. It's also expected that the number of studios signing up, and therefore the amount of content available, will grow over time.

If you access your Roku device and can't see the new Roku Channel, don't worry, it's coming. Roku decided to mirror what it does with software updates and carry out a phased roll out to current generation hardware. That's going to take a few weeks to be completed.