After months of bickering and finger-pointing, Roku and Google have reached a deal to keep the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on Roku devices — at least for the next few years. Streaming apps are everywhere you look in 2021. Want to watch popular shows like Midnight Mass and Squid Game? A Netflix subscription is a must. Interested in watching all the Marvel movies? Get ready to sign up for Disney+. Between those apps, Hulu, HBO Max, and countless others, the streaming landscape is more crowded than it's ever been.
With so many streaming services and smart TV platforms available, it's not uncommon for things to get messy sometimes. For example, it's now a regular occurrence for shows/movies to bounce back and forth between different services. There are also instances where certain streaming apps aren't always available on every operating system. These things are undoubtedly annoying, yet they've become an expected quantity with the streaming world we all live in.
This messiness has recently been on full display with Roku and Google. Roku lost the YouTube TV app back in May and was prepared to lose access to YouTube in just a couple of days. Thankfully, both apps are staying on the smart TV platform for a few more years to come. In a Tweet from the official Roku account on December 8, the company said the following: "Effective today, we have agreed to a multi-year extension with Google for YouTube and YouTube TV. This agreement represents a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform." In other words, the YouTube and YouTube TV apps aren't going anywhere. Regardless if someone already has these apps or is downloading them for the first time, YouTube and YouTube TV will remain available on Roku without any hangups.
Why Roku And Google Have Been At War With Each Other
This is undoubtedly good news — but why were the YouTube apps in jeopardy in the first place? It was all thanks to a huge game of 'he said, she said' between Roku and Google. When YouTube TV was removed earlier this year, Roku claimed Google was pushing for contract changes that would "harm" users. In October, while negotiating its rights to the YouTube app, Roku said Google was attempting to "interfere with Roku’s independent search results" and force Roku to give "preference [to] YouTube over other content providers."
Google said these claims were "baseless" and that none of them were true. However, leaked emails between Google and Roku seemed to reinforce the suggestion that Google did want special treatment for YouTube on the platform. It's impossible to say who's right and who's wrong, but what's certain is that there's a lot of tension between these two companies.
Thankfully, the drama is now over — at least until this latest agreement expires. Roku doesn't indicate how long the 'multi-year extension' is good for, but there will come a day when negotiations need to be made again. That may very well result in another round of finger-pointing, but at least for the time being, things are settled and back to normal.
Source: Roku