Amazon Fire Stick and Roku users unlock special Halloween and Christmas TV channels in latest boost to popular free app

TWO festive TV channels are landing on Amazon Fire and Roku sticks this week, bringing with them more than 100 hours of content.

The pair of new free channels, which air content 24 hours a day, will be available via the Rakuten TV streaming platform.

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The channels are called Rakuten TV Halloween and Rakuten TV 100% Christmas.

Both stations will exclusively stream movies, from Hollywood blockbusters to beloved classics.

They are free to watch, as long as you’re happy to watch adverts.

Rakuten TV Halloween is already live on the platform, having launched yesterday, and will be watchable until 4 November.

The channel will feature a spooky selection of films, like The Resurrection of Charles Manson and Jessabelle.

Tomorrow (16 October), Rakuten TV will also launch its Christmas channel, which will air festive classics until 8 January, 2025.

The channel will include titles like Christmas Eve and I’m Not Ready for Christmas.

Where can I watch?

Amazon Fire and Roku streaming stick owners can download the Rakuten TV app to watch both channels.

Though the Halloween station will also be available on LG Channels, Xiaomi and Vidaa.

Meanwhile, 100% Christmas will be on platforms such as Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, Xiaomi and Vidaa.

Christmas spirit

Rakuten TV 100% Christmas is the latest festive channel to hit screens, but has managed to escape outrage for arriving ‘too early’.

GREAT! Christmas launched on 5 September, a whole 110 days before the big day itself.

It’s the earliest the channel has ever launched, and was met with disbelief from viewers.

“Hold on we haven’t passed Halloween yet for Christmas,” one person wrote on X at the time.

Though others welcomed the channel, saying: “I don’t mind, I can watch Christmas films anytime of year, I don’t see why people think they should only be watched at Christmas.

“Of course though, the obvious answer is if you think it’s too early don’t watch, simples!”

Roku voice commands – the official list

Here are some voice commands to try with your Roku mobile app, as revealed by the TV giant itself...

• Find a specific movie or show
  “Harry Potter”
  “find Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
  “show me episodes of Silicon Valley”
  
• Search for your favorite actors or directors
  “Halle Berry”
  “search for comedy movies with Will Farrell”
  “find all Martin Scorsese films”
  
• Browse popular genres
  “show me comedies”
  “find thriller movies”
  
• Find content in a genre on a channel
  “show documentary films on Sky Store”

• Launch a streaming channel
  “go to YouTube”
  “launch Prime Video”
  “BBC iPlayer”

• Playback commands
  “fast forward”
  “rewind”
  “pause”
  “stop”
  “resume”
  “continue”
  “skip”
  “next”
  “replay”
  
• Closed captioning commands
  “turn on closed captioning”
  “hide the captions”
  “show captions during replay”
  “turn on captions during mute”
  “what’s my captions setting?”

• Move forward a specific amount of time
  “forward 15 minutes”
  “skip 5 minutes”
  “fast forward 3 minutes”
  “go forward 10 minutes”
  
• Move backward (or rewind) a specific amount of time
  “go back half an hour”
  “rewind 30 minutes”
  
• Restart video from beginning
  “start over”

• Search for content
  “play Taylor Swift”
  “play Daft Punk on Spotify”
  “play S-Town on TuneIn”
• Interact with your streaming service
  “thumbs up/down”
  “like/dislike”
  “what song is this?”

• Switch devices
  “switch the input to HDMI 3”
  “switch to antenna TV”
  “switch to Blu-ray player”
• Change over-the-air broadcast channels
  “channel up”
  “channel down”
  “tune to NBC”
  “find channel 7.1″
  “previous channel”
  
• Launch or hide Live TV Channel Guide
  “open live tv guide”
  “open channel guide
  “hide channel guide”
  
• Adjust volume levels
  “turn the volume up”
  “volume down”
  “mute”
  “set volume to 50%”
  “set volume to 5”