Roku has released an astonishingly cheap streaming service. The consumer electronics company is behind the free streaming platform The Roku Channel, which – in addition to a library of licensed тιтles – features original movies and television shows such as the acquired fantasy series The Spiderwick Chronicles, the mockumentary The Charlie Puth Show, and the parody biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

Now, Roku has introduced a subscription streaming service called Howdy that is “always ad-free“ and already available to subscribers. Described as “your go-to destination for timeless comfort,” Howdy is available for just $2.99 a month, which is considerably less than leading streaming services such as Netflix ($7.99+), Disney+ ($9.99+), and HBO Max ($9.99+).

However, the streaming service, which features some Roku originals alongside тιтles licensed from Lionsgate, FilmRise, and Warner Bros., has its limitations. This includes the fact that it is currently only available in the United States, via Roku, at the time of writing.

Additionally, on top of not featuring any original content at the time of writing, it does not seem to feature any new releases among the 10,000 hours of content Roku boasts, or indeed any movies or television series that were released in 2023 or later.

What This Means For Howdy’s Library

While the Howdy commercial that was released on Roku’s official X account on August 5 admits that “we don’t have everything,” the limitations of the scope of their library are quite apparent. Beyond the Oscar-winning 2019 movie Bombshell and the Oscar-nominated 2022 music biopic Elvis, none of the тιтles featured debuted later than 2016.

See the full commercial below:

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Another potentially telling element of the commercial is the fact that multiple тιтles are featured twice, including Joyful Noise, Transporter 3, and Elvis. Additionally, the Denzel Washington movie The Great Debaters is featured three times. This may highlight the limited number of тιтles available on Howdy, in addition to their vintage.

Below, see a breakdown of the release years for every тιтle featured in the commercial, in the order they appear:

Additionally, the Howdy page on Roku’s official website (which highlights Weeds, Elvis, Dirty Dancing, and Nurse Jackie, The Graduate, Reservoir Dogs, and American Psycho as core тιтles) allows viewers to scroll through offerings in several genres, including “Feel-good movie nights” and “Binge-worthy crime dramas.”

However, other than Elvis, the only тιтles featured on the page that premiered after 2016 are all from the “True crime obsessions” section, namely 2021’s Meet, Marry, Murder and Confronting a Serial Killer, 2020’s O.J. & Nicole: An American Tragedy, and 2017’s Who Killed Jane Doe?.

Our Take On Howdy

The fact that the Howdy main page uses the word “comfort” multiple times seems to imply that the people behind the streaming service are aware of its limitations as far as new releases. However, this may not be a problem for viewers whose priorities lie in rewatching favorite тιтles rather than seeking new content.

Ultimately, if the library of the new Roku streaming service grows beyond the narrow scope implied by its initial rollout, it could prove to be a valuable resource for nostalgic content that won’t break the bank.