CES 2015: Roku Announces New Roku TV Partners, Plans For 4K Ultra HD Sets

LAS VEGAS -- Roku, maker of the popular video-streaming devices, announced plans to broadly expand its line of Roku TV sets Monday at the International CES in Las Vegas. Most notably, the company said its Roku TV software will be coming to 4k Ultra HD TVs.

Roku first unveiled Roku TV -- televisions with Roku's video-streaming software built in -- at last year's show. Roku partnered with Chinese electronics companies Hisense and TCL to begin selling Roku TV sets in late 2014.

At least one of those companies liked what it saw as Roku announced TCL will be releasing 12 new Roku TV models in the first half of 2015. Additionally, Roku said it has created the Roku TV 4K reference design, which will allow its TV partners to begin building 4K high-resolution TV sets capable of using its Roku software. Already, TCL has signed on to deliver a 4K Roku TV.

Roku's support for 4K should be a boon for the TV industry, which has been pushing 4K Ultra HD TVs to consumers for the past few years in hopes of sparking sales. With Roku adopting 4K, more content providers may be enticed to support the high-resolution technology.

Finally, the Saratoga, California, company said it has added two new partners: Insignia and Haier. Insignia will begin selling its Roku TV sets in the spring, exclusively through Best Buy, while Haier's models will be available in the summer.