Prism99

Roku plugs into the back of your tv. You have to have internet, preferably high speed internet, in order for it to work. You can set it up to use the wireless internet in your home, or you can use an ethernet for wired access to your internet. If you use computers in your home, you should be able to set up Roku to use the same internet that your computers use.

If your friend was able to use Roku to switch among all those news channels, then I'm thinking he/she must subscribe to Sling Blue, which costs about $25/month. Sling gives you access to about 30 different tv channels. Some downsides are that commercials are included and only one tv in the house can access Sling at a time.

If you have Amazon Prime, Roku lets you watch their free movies on your tv. The most popular subscription for Roku is Netflix, which costs about $10/month and gives you access to a *lot* of movies and older tv series (such as Lost). No commercials in Netflix (a real bonus when you are watching a tv series!), and you can have two different tvs watching two different Netflix shows at a time. Acorn is another good subscription service. $5/month and you get access to all kinds of BBC movies and older tv shows without commercials. (When I say older, I mean that you usually do not get access to the current season. The subscription channels do not have every tv series, but they have a lot of different ones at any given time and switch them out regularly.)

I can't say I really understand Roku; the above is most of what I have learned in the past year or so of using it. Basically, I think in order to make Roku useful, you need to add one or more subscriptions. We have been thinking of getting rid of cable, but Sling does not completely replace it, especially for sports.

Edit: For the local channels, I think you need to access those either through cable or a tv antenna that catches them. Most people live where an antenna will pick up a lot of local channels; you don't necessarily need able for that.