Roku Announces Plans To Launch In The UK & Canada Early Next Year

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The Roku set-top boxes have been available for those in the US for some time now. In fact, we have seen Roku release several generations of the boxes. However, coming as of this morning we have a bit of good news for those in the UK and Canada — Roku has officially announced plans to begin selling the boxes in your markets.

That being said, that bit of good news will come with a bit of a wait. According to the details released so far, Roku will not open sales until sometime in early 2012. And of course, while this sounds like good news for the folks at Roku, it is probably equally good news for other companies such as Netflix. After all, the Roku boxes offer a rather simple and affordable way of bringing Netflix into your living room. Of course, Netflix is just one of the many available options on the Roku boxes.

With that, there are still some obvious details missing. For example, something a bit more specific would be nice in terms of a release date. Not to mention, clarification as to which model(s) will be available and how much they will set you back. Just to clarify that point, at present Roku has the Roku LT as well as the Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD and the Roku 2 XS available for sale which come priced at $49.99, $59.99, $79.99 and $99.99 respectively. Of course, each have varying features in terms of the hardware such as some are 1080p capable and some are limited to 720p. In addition some ship with the enhanced remote control and some have an Ethernet and USB port.

Otherwise, we are also wondering what is going to happen in regards to the Roku Channel Store. At present it has more than 350 available options, however not all of those are services that are available outside the US. For example, in the US, the Roku makes an excellent device for Hulu Plus. But as many realize, that service is not available elsewhere just yet. That said, we can likely assume that the each country will have a specific Roku Channel Store selection. And if nothing else, we are certain that more details will be available fairly soon.