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Over the past few months, Google and Roku have been going back and forth trading blows with the boxing gloves over whether or not the Youtube and Youtube TV apps would be available on Roku devices once their agreement for it expired. At first, Roku called out Google in an abrasive email for having “anti-competitive behavior” and “monopoly power to try and force terms that will directly harm streamers.” Then, Youtube TV replied on Twitter stating that Roku was making “baseless claims”
Then, Roku claimed that Youtube asked for special permission, visibility, and access to data that other partners normally wouldn’t have – something that apparently ended up being true. The whole thing has just been a big, ridiculous mess that’s affected consumers more than anything.
Luckily though, Roku posted on Twitter yesterday that it has agreed to a multi-year deal with Youtube and Youtube TV that would allow these applications to be accessible to users on Roku devices – hooray! We’re not sure exactly what caused them to work things out with one another, but we’re glad they did. When companies squabble over money and fire shots at one another publicly, it causes frustration for their fans and users and just makes them look bad.
This means that you can go right now and grab Youtube and Youtube TV from Roku’s channel store. Instead of the contract for Youtube ending this month, it remains available, while Youtube TV was removed back in April, but is now back and ready to be used! As of today when this deal went official, there’s now no worry for the foreseeable future regarding their removal. Only time will tell if all of this will come up again, so we’ll keep you posted if anything changes down the line.
That brings me to our question for the day. Do you use a Roku device? If so, do you use the Youtube or Youtube TV apps on them? Is your Roku streaming a separate stick or box, or do you have it built into your TV? If you aren’t using their service, do you have a Chromecast with Google TV or something else? What do you think about everything that’s transpired between Roku and Google over the past six months? Let us know in the comments below, and happy streaming!
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