AirPlay 2 and HomeKit Coming to Select 4K Roku TVs and Devices Later This Year

Sorry but Roku is garbage. A friend of mine just bought a Roku TV. They now require a $60 subscription to be able to use the TV for anything—even TV functions not utilizing Roku. I called the Roku support number in an attempt to help him and was informed by the billing manager that they just changed their Terms of Service to require a subscription. Needless to say, he is returning the TV.

This is completely false information.

I think you got scammed (or attempted scammed). I just googled and there are some situations similar to yours. People posing as roku support and charging people. Numbers popped up on their screens etc. Roku doesn't charge a subscription or activation fee.

It is easier to scam/con someone than to convince them they have been conned/scammed.

Sorry but Roku is garbage. A friend of mine just bought a Roku TV. They now require a $60 subscription to be able to use the TV for anything—even TV functions not utilizing Roku. I called the Roku support number in an attempt to help him and was informed by the billing manager that they just changed their Terms of Service to require a subscription. Needless to say, he is returning the TV.

That's just patently untrue. I bought my dad a cheap TCL a couple of years ago, and he loves it. I myself bought a TCL Series 5 just a few weeks ago, and it's great. Neither of us pays a subscription to use the TV - I don't even know how that would work. Yes, we have channels like Netflix and Amazon, but we pay Netflix and Amazon for those services.

Apple had to encourage Roku to do this. There are many Roku owners who wouldn't think of buying an AppleTV (like me, for example). Of course, if you're not invested in products requiring Apple's walled garden, this news is "meh". I fired Apple a couple of years ago.

I would think most apple news would be meh if you're not invested. Not sure why you're on a macrumors site if you fired them years ago?

Sorry but Roku is garbage. A friend of mine just bought a Roku TV. They now require a $60 subscription to be able to use the TV for anything—even TV functions not utilizing Roku. I called the Roku support number in an attempt to help him and was informed by the billing manager that they just changed their Terms of Service to require a subscription. Needless to say, he is returning the TV.

That doesn't sound right at all. I've never heard of a Roku TV requiring a sub. Got details?

Sorry but Roku is garbage. A friend of mine just bought a Roku TV. They now require a $60 subscription to be able to use the TV for anything—even TV functions not utilizing Roku. I called the Roku support number in an attempt to help him and was informed by the billing manager that they just changed their Terms of Service to require a subscription. Needless to say, he is returning the TV.

Many others have pointed out that this is not true, but I'm going to be a little more detailed.

There is a very common scam where the scammers bought a bunch of misspelled domains that are close to the Roku URL, and so when someone mistypes the activation URL given by the device, they are convinced by said scammers that they have to pay a subscription. They also have off-by-1-digit phone numbers that they give out on the fake site. Sounds like your friend got taken for a ride and you believed them for some reason. But if you had called the actual Roku support number, or gone to the correct Roku support website, you'd see that no subscription is required for any Roku functionality.