Coming to Roku: Audiobooks and Videos From Local Libraries

CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwired - Feb 26, 2014) - OverDrive announced today that it will launch a free Roku channel that enables users of school and library audiobooks and Streaming Video to listen and watch titles on their TVs. Librarians attending the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference in Indianapolis March 11-15 will be able to see a demonstration of the OverDrive Roku channel in booth #721.

Roku is a popular and inexpensive streaming audio and video device that can be connected to most TVs. The OverDrive Roku channel will provide consumers another way to access their local library digital audiobook and video catalog, making it easy to watch a movie or listen to MP3 audiobooks in just seconds. Roku comes preinstalled with popular channels including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Pandora and others. Once launched, the OverDrive channel will be a free, no subscription service that all Roku users can easily select and then locate titles to borrow from their library.

"Today's public libraries already offer tens of thousands of best-selling digital audiobooks and videos in every category," said Karen Estrovich, OverDrive's Director of Collection Development. "Roku extends the value of the OverDrive libraries' digital media collections to TVs in millions of living rooms, kitchens, dens -- anywhere the WiFi reaches."

OverDrive provides the largest collection of digital audiobooks from every major publishing house, including best-selling authors John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, Nicholas Sparks, Gillian Flynn, Neil Gaiman and many more. Early this year, the company launched its Streaming Video service for public libraries and has already added more than 4,000 feature films, educational, children's, spiritual, and self-help titles from Criterion Pictures, Revolver Entertainment, and Cinedigm, among others. Visit Los Angeles Public Library's digital collection to see some of these titles at lapl.lib.overdrive.com.  

Libraries and schools that have MP3 audiobooks and Streaming Video through OverDrive will have their library's available titles in the new Roku channel. After registering their library card number in the initial visit, users simply choose the OverDrive channel from the Roku menu, select their library, and borrow Streaming Videos and audiobooks that their library has available for checkout.

The OverDrive Roku channel will be available for use later this year. Visit OverDrive's booth # 721 at PLA Conference March 11-15 to learn more, and visit http://blogs.overdrive.com for updates.

About OverDrive
OverDrive is the leading multichannel digital platform for eBooks, audiobooks, music and video for libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. We supply 28,000 partners reaching millions of end users with support for all major computers and devices, including iPhone®, iPad®, Nook®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindle® (U.S. only). Recent enhancements to OverDrive's platform include multilingual user interface support, Streaming Video, in-library touchscreen stations for browsing and instant sampling of eBooks or audiobooks, and OverDrive Read, the company's EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience.

OverDrive has been named to the EContent 100 as a company that matters most in the digital content industry and is a member of the 2012 Technology Fast 500. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland. www.overdrive.com.