By Jonathan Easton

Roku has announced a partnership with NBCUniversal to bring the broadcaster’s local news channels to FAST platform The Roku Channel.

NBCUniversal Local will bring local news channels from its NBC stations in major markets around the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington DC, Hartford (CT), and South Florida, to The Roku Channel. Additional channels will be added in the coming months.

Head of The Roku Channel, AVOD, Ashley Hovey said: “Audiences are increasingly opting to consume news through streaming, and local news has consistently been one of the top requested categories by our users. We’re excited to work with NBCUniversal Local and the NBC Stations to expand our relevant live TV offering for streamers and to bring news from multiple major cities to millions of viewers across the country to easily access and enjoy.”

EVP of Diginets and Original Production, NBCUniversal Local, Meredith McGinn said: Local news has never been more vital to helping our audiences stay informed about what’s happening in their communities. We look forward to bringing our NBC local news channels and our stations’ best-in-class journalism to the millions of people The Roku Channel reaches and to launching more of our NBC local news channels to expand streamers’ access to our local news content.”