The Good News, No More YouTube TV Commercials On New Roku TVs
The Bad News? No YouTube TV On New TVs Whatsoever!
Roku has been having YouTube problems for a while now, and surprisingly it is not about money. Roku does not take any cut of the revenue from YouTube ads, Google gets 100% of the money so cutting off the growth of the that revenue stream seems an odd decision, nevertheless that was what Google decided.
If you currently pay for a YouTube TV subscription you will be able to continue to use it on your Roku device, the only wise decision in this news considering the cost of said subscription. However, if you do not have it set up already or move to a new TV, as of December 9th the YouTube TV app will not appear on the list of installable apps for at least the next five months.
It seems that Google is not after money, but preferential treatment from Roku; more so than from other similar online TV providers. Google wants to have a YouTube TV search bar appear on the Roku smart TV interface, something not even Disney has asked for. The statement from Roku also suggests Google would like even more preferential treatment, though what that entails was not specified.
You will still be able to get plain old YouTube after this, though who knows if changes to that app are included in Google’s wish list.
Roku on Thursday told customers via a post on its corporate blog that it has still not been able to strike a distribution agreement with YouTube TV, which has been removed from Roku's channel store for five months.
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