Roku and the link code on the screen

Roku is the case that gives this whole subject its reputation, because the words Roku activation fee describe something that does not exist. A Roku device links to a Roku account; the account is free, the linking is free, and Roku says so in plain terms on its own pages.

The screen of a new player, stick or Roku TV reaches a point where it prints a short code and the address roku.com/link. Everything a viewer needs to know about that moment fits on this page.

What happens on each side

The code on a Roku screen is a device code: it ties the box or TV itself to one Roku account, so that the account’s channels, purchases and settings appear on it. It is not a channel sign-in. Once the device is linked, individual apps on it — a video service, a music service — each print their own codes at their own addresses when they are opened for the first time. Two kinds of code can therefore appear on one Roku on one evening, and they belong to different companies.

The address roku.com/link is short because Roku expects it to be typed by hand. It forwards to my.roku.com/link, which is still Roku: my.roku.com is the account side of the same registrable name. The page there carries a single field headed with a request for the link code displayed on the TV, and a Submit button. Account sign-in, or account creation, happens on the same domain. When the code is accepted, the Roku screen moves on by itself; the phone never talks to the TV.

Roku’s current documentation leads with two other routes: scanning the square code on the screen, or typing an e-mail address on the TV and opening the link Roku sends. All three end in the same place — the device appears in the account’s device list.

One thing the Roku process does ask about is a payment method. Roku’s pages say a payment method may be requested when an account is created, and that it is charged only if something is later bought through the account. That request sits inside the account creation on Roku’s domain; it is not a fee, and it is not the reason the code exists. A page that presents a card field as the price of the code itself is describing something Roku does not do.

Easily confused with

• Any address in which roku and link are joined by a hyphen, or where roku sits in front of a different name (roku-link.example, rokucom-link.example, roku.com.linkcode.example), is not Roku. The registrable name — the part just before .com — is what counts, and Roku’s is roku.com.
• A page that opens a chat box, prints a telephone number, or offers a paid activation plan is not Roku’s: the genuine page has one field and one button.
• A page that says the account has been locked and a fee will release it. Roku’s own warning describes exactly this pattern — an impostor links the device to their account and then charges to release it — which is why a code is never entered on anyone else’s behalf.

Range

Devices on which this code sign-in appears, as named on the service’s own pages: