Roku users can no longer access YouTube TV after the expiry of the distribution agreement between Roku and Google. Roku nixed YouTube TV from its channel store on Friday, immediately after the agreement’s expiry, with no new agreement deal.
The standard YouTube app is, however, not affected.
On Friday, Roku said its “taking the extra step to continue to offer existing subscribers access to YouTube TV on the Roku platform unless Google takes actions that require the full removal of the channel.”
That action has quickly turned grown intense over the weekend, and the two do not seem to strike up a deal anytime soon.
Roku accused Google of pushing for unfair terms, which have jeopardized the agreement. According to Roku, Google wants deeper access to customer data and a commitment to support the AV1 video codec in future hardware. The company also claims that Google wants it to change its consumer search results, something that the Alphabet-owned company has refuted.
Google is also waging war at Roku, accusing the company of abusing strong market share.
“Our initial conversations started with Roku simply to renew the current terms of their ongoing deal with YouTube TV, which has been in place for several years,” the company said in a blog post.
“Our offer to Roku was simple and still stands: renew the YouTube TV deal under the existing reasonable terms.”
Google claims Roku took the opportunity to “renegotiate a separate deal encompassing the YouTube main app, which does not expire until December.”
However, Google more or less confirmed that it was pushing Roku to support AV1 in the future, which is used on YouTube. To justify its motives, Google says it won’t be possible to watch YouTube in 4K HDR or 8K if Roku doesn’t support open video codecs, even if Roku streaming devices support 4K or higher 8K resolution.
According to Roku, support for AV1 could make Roku devices more expensive for consumers.
The wars have grown more intense, making it more unclear to predict when the whole matter will be settled.
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