The Roku Channel has acquired 150 episodes of The Great British Baking Show and its various spinoffs and launched a free ad-supporting streaming television channel dedicated to the Baking Show franchise, reports Variety.
This is the franchise’s first-ever FAST channel and features Baking Show material that has never been broadcast in the United States.
Content currently on the Roku Channel includes the U.S. debuts of The Great British Baking Show Seasons 1-2, Celebrity Baking Show Seasons 1-10, Baking Show: An Extra Slice Seasons 1-3, Paul Hollywood Bread, Mary Berry Cooks, Chronicles of Nadia and Liam Bakes.
“Our goal with the ‘Baking Show’ universe is to surprise and delight fans of this iconic franchise,” said Brian Tannenbaum, Roku’s head of alternative originals, in a statement to the news outlet. “On the originals side, that began with an American version that honors all of the endearing elements of the original, with incredible new co-hosts in Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry, iconic judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, and the wonderful team at Love Productions. As our partnership evolved, we recognized an opportunity to enhance the viewing experience for our streamers and worked closely with our content acquisition team to turn that possibility into a reality.”
The channel debut and acquisitions follow Roku’s announcement in August that it would produce a new season of The Great American Baking Show, which will air in early 2023.
Additionally, Roku announced last week that the holiday special The Great American Baking Show Celebrity Holiday Special will air on Dec. 2.
“Bringing such a wide breadth of Baking Show content to the Roku Channel, and programming it in different ways across the Roku Channel, exemplified the strength of our multipronged content strategy,” said Jennifer Vaux, head of content acquisition for the Roku Channel. “We’re uniquely positioned to drive audiences across content types – FAST, AVOD, and originals. Because of this, we can create synergies across the Roku Channel that not only drive audiences to programming but keep them engaged across our service. This multi-faceted approach both complements the launch of our original content and allows us to create more meaningful and holistic viewing experiences on the Roku Channel.”