Metropolitan Opera Streaming Service Expands to Roku

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Plácido Domingo as Don Carlo in “Ernani” at the Metropolitan Opera.Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

It is a little like having Netflix for Metropolitan Opera performances.

The Metropolitan Opera said Monday that it was making its subscription streaming service available through Roku devices, which should expand its reach and make it easier for opera buffs to see on-demand performances on their televisions and home entertainment systems.

The service, called Met Opera on Demand, costs $14.99 a month and offers access to 160 videos of operas, with more than half filmed in recent years for the Met’s Live in HD cinema series and the rest made up of older telecasts with the stars of recent decades. It also offers 396 recordings of radio broadcasts dating to 1935, and regularly adds new offerings.

Until now the service has been available to subscribers on personal computers, iPads and on Apple TV. But that left out opera fans who do not use Apple products, and who wanted to be able to see and hear operas on their home entertainment systems — not a computer or an iPad. The Met’s creation of a new Roku channel will make it available to people with Roku devices.

Of course, Netflix offers its viewers films from all the major studios. Met Opera on Demand only offers operas from one company; fans of the Vienna State Opera, say, will have to use its own streaming service.