A spat between Roku and Google means that the YouTube and YouTube TV streaming apps could be banished from the Roku platform.
Your Roku TV or Roku streaming stick may be about to lose access to both YouTube and YouTube TV, it seems, after the popular smart TV platform pulled back the curtains on its latest spat with Google (which owns the YouTube streaming service). Roku calls Google’s terms for the app’s continued presence “unfair”, reportedly including favorable weighting towards YouTube-hosted music in results for voice search, more prominent placement of YouTube search results, and even the removal of competing search results while the YouTube app is open on a Roku device. Roku, it seems, is refusing, arguing that “Google is attempting to use its YouTube monopoly position to force Roku into accepting predatory, anti-competitive and discriminatory terms that will directly harm Roku and our users” (via Axios). Roku has gone so far as to directly email Roku customers about the issue, warning of the “possibility that Google may take away your access to the YouTube TV channel on Roku,” due to negotiations about the app’s continued support having “broken down.” The Roku platform is found on huge swathes of streaming devices today, from the Roku Express and Roku Streaming Stick+ to Hisense Roku TV s and the TCL 6-Series smart TV – meaning that any disagreement could affect millions of devices and their users.
