Beforehand on Google versus Roku: Roku and Google needed to renew the contract for YouTube TV, Google’s $65-per-month cable TV alternative, on Roku’s TV platform. The 2 firms weren’t in a position to come to an settlement on the brand new contract, leading to YouTube TV being pulled from the Roku retailer. Oh no! Whereas current clients might nonetheless use the YouTube TV app that they had already put in, new customers could not join. Will the 2 firms ever have the ability to settle their variations, or is their friendship ruined eternally?
The following thrilling episode on this saga aired on Friday, when Google introduced in a blog post that it was simply going to run an end-around on Roku and stick the YouTube TV app in the YouTube app. YouTube and YouTube TV exist as separate apps, and whereas the YouTube TV contract expired and the app was taken off the Roku retailer, the YouTube contract doesn’t expire till December.
Because the YouTube app remains to be operating, Google was in a position to rapidly shove YouTube TV performance into it. On the facet navigation menu, the final hyperlink within the checklist reads, “Go to YouTube TV.” This isn’t unprecedented—it is really the best way YouTube Music works, too, with a form of app-within-an-app interface.
Google says it’s “nonetheless working to return to an settlement with Roku to make sure continued entry to YouTube TV for our mutual clients.” However Google threatened Roku with one other escalation, saying, “We’re additionally in discussions with different companions to safe free streaming units in case YouTube TV members face any entry points on Roku.”
A number of weeks in the past, Google supplied to “renew the YouTube TV deal underneath the prevailing cheap phrases” with Roku, so Roku appears to be the present aggressor. In response to this newest transfer, Roku despatched the next assertion to The Verge.
Google’s actions are the clear conduct of an unchecked monopolist bent on crushing truthful competitors and harming shopper alternative. The bundling announcement by YouTube highlights the type of predatory enterprise practices utilized by Google that Congress, Lawyer Generals and regulatory our bodies all over the world are investigating. Roku has not requested for one further greenback in monetary worth from YouTubeTV. Now we have merely requested Google to cease their anticompetitive habits of manipulating consumer search outcomes to their distinctive monetary profit and to cease demanding entry to delicate knowledge that no different accomplice on our platform receives at present. In response, Google has continued its apply of blatantly leveraging its YouTube monopoly to pressure an impartial firm into an settlement that’s each unhealthy for shoppers and unhealthy for truthful competitors.
These are the identical claims Roku has made earlier than, and Google has already responded to them, saying, “To be clear, we’ve got by no means, as they’ve alleged, made any requests to entry consumer knowledge or intrude with search outcomes. This declare is baseless and false.”
The real reason for the rift between the 2 firms appears to be over Google’s AV1 video codec necessities for YouTube (presumably just for new units), and it appears these necessities would begin in December, when the mainline YouTube app contract expires.
AV1 is a cutting-edge, royalty-free video codec that may possible be the subsequent de facto video commonplace, because it’s backed by Google, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, Fb, Arm, Hulu, and a ton of other companies. AV1 would save on bandwidth for streaming firms and clients, nevertheless it requires {hardware} decode assist on cheaper units like a Roku field. Google needs to make AV1 a requirement for YouTube, however that requires new chips, that are most likely dearer than the older chips Roku would favor to make use of.
Google says, “Individually, we’re additionally in ongoing, long-term conversations with Roku to certify that new units meet our technical necessities. This certification course of exists to make sure a constant and high-quality YouTube expertise throughout totally different units, together with Google’s personal—so you understand how to navigate the app and what to anticipate. We’ll proceed our conversations with Roku on certification, in good religion, with the objective of advocating for our mutual clients.”
