Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, August 5th, 2025:A FIRST LOOK AT ROKU'S AD-FREE STREAMING SERVICEIf you read nearly any entertainment news website on Tuesday, you likely saw mention of Roku's new ad-free SVOD Howdy. For $2.99, subscribers can access what a press release promised is "thousands of titles and nearly 10,000 hours of entertainment from its inaugural partners, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery, and FilmRise, alongside select Roku Original titles." But for the most part, the news coverage consisted of stories that were lightly re-written takes on the official press release. Combined with short hot takes on the supposed strategy behind the move. But none of the pieces answered the basic question for most readers: is it worth $2.99 a month?Spoiler: it is not.In the abstract, creating an ad-supported version of The Roku Channel is not a bad idea. There is likely a market for the idea. Or at least, enough of a promise of a market that it's worth giving the project a try. But Howdy is poorly executed, with a library that is filled with random licensed titles you can watch other places. It feels rushed and slapped together in a way that might doom the service before it can find it's intended audience.
Roku spent the money to have a branded takeover of Times Square digital billboards promoting the service at launch. But it also launched without a mobile app or apps for any platform other than Roku. Even its web version isn't stand-alone, and the Howdy url resolves to a page inside the Roku Channel website.As for the current Howdy app, it's a perplexing collection of wrong decisions that has a user-experience which feels like it was assembled by a glitchy AI design team trained on early versions of Amazon's Freevee. Despite the promise of "nearly 10,000 hours of entertainment," the reality is that Howdy appears to have around 200 movies and 200 TV shows, which are arranged in awkwardly named categories such as "Adrenaline Rush," "Ready, Set, Action!" and "Action Meets Adventure."While I understand the promise a future version of Howdy might promise, the service at launch feels a lot like a corporate initiative that was rushed to market too fast. It's difficult for me to imagine there are many potential subscribers who think, "Why yes, I would like to pay $3 for an ad-free viewing experience of Wildfire and Tyler Perry's Good Deeds. I'll keep checking in on it. But right now, descriptions of the service as a "lower cost companion to Netflix" are nothing but marketing hype. Howdy is more of a heap of steaming poo than a streaming service I would recommend to anyone other than my worst enemies.
BLUESKY HAS A TELEVISION INDUSTRY PROBLEMSometimes it doesn't make much to send me into a deep rabbit hole.On Tuesday, TV Line Senior Editor Ryan Schwartz posted this on Bluesky:
Which was an interesting point, since one of the regular complaints I hear from readers is that there aren't enough news and entertainment accounts on Bluesky. And that led to me spending much of my afternoon trying to determine if that is indeed the case (spoiler: yes, it is) and if so, what was the reason why many of your favorite TV networks and streamers have decided not to embrace the platform?From talking on background to a couple of streamers today, there seem to be a couple of issues that are keeping many brands from embracing Bluesky. The lack of ad products make the service less of a priority for brands. But the biggest problem seems to be that because Bluesky didn't have a way for brands to verify their identity until this April, many entertainment brands were reluctant to launch on Bluesky. Especially since the service continues to be plagued with fake brand accounts and fan versions which may or may not be posting accurate stories.So I spent time going through Bluesky, Threads and X, looking for official television and streaming brand accounts, as well as noting when they lasted posted something new.The results are below, with one big caveat. If the space is empty, I couldn't find an official account. But that doesn't one might not exist. For instance, searching for "Amazon Prime" on Bluesky brings up all kinds of unofficial accounts. And using Google to search for accounts brings up all sorts of vaguely related choices which at the same time aren't what I'm looking for. So it's likely I might have missed something and if I did, email me at [email protected] and let me know. And as an fyi, I just learned that Substack apparently doesn’t support tables. So if you would like to see a version of the info below that has clickable headlines, go here.
So after tracking down info all day, I came to a couple of related conclusions. First, the majority of networks and streamers have yet to open an official Bluesky account and those that have aren't giving the platform much attention. Secondly, even the established brand accounts at Threads and X are lacking attention, likely due to cuts in marketing and social media staffs. Even accounts that are active are mostly just posting generic "Hey, this is premiering tonight" posts across multiple platforms.TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS* Fox Corporation announced it will launch its direct-to-consumer service, Fox One, on August 21st for $19.99 a month and pay TV subscribers will receive access for free. Fox One will host the entirety of the Fox TV portfolio: live sports such as NFL and MLB that appear on its broadcast network, as well as news programming from its Fox News and Fox Business cable TV networks. But the service won't produce any original content.* More than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America signed an open letter decrying Donald Trump’s “unprecedented, authoritarian assault” on the free press.* Status is reporting that The Wrap hired Corbin Bolies from the Daily Beast as its media reporter.* Netflix has released the full trailer for season two of My Life With the Walter Boys.* Donald Trump took aim on Truth Social at CBS personality Gayle King: "Gayle King’s career is over. She should have stayed with her belief in TRUMP. She never had the courage to do so. No talent, no ratings, no strength!!!"WHAT'S NEW TOMORROWWEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6TH:* Eyes Of Wakanda Series Premiere (Disney+)* Forged In Fire Season Eleven Premiere (History)* Jersey Shore: Family Vacation Season Premiere (Paramount+)* Mysteries Of The Abandoned: Hidden America Season Four Finale (Discovery Channel)* Platonic Season Two Premiere (Apple TV+)* The Buccaneers Season Two Finale (Apple TV+)* The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder Season Three Premiere (Disney+)* The Pickup (Prime Video)* Wanted: Dead or Alive Season One Finale (Fox Nation)* Wednesday Season Two Premiere (Netflix)THURSDAY, AUGUST 7TH:* Demascus Series Premiere (Tubi)* Necaxa Series Premiere (FXX)* Taurasi (Prime Video)* Ted Bundy: Dialogue With the Devil (Hulu)* The Furry Detectives: Unmasking A Monster Docuseries Finale (Sundance TV)SEE YOU ON WEDNESDAY!