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Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

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Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#61
post #4

I'm just about sick of YouTube and YouTube TV not playing well with whatever device I've decided on. First it was YouTube and the Firestick, now it's YouTube TV and Roku. Frankly, how did Google end up with a good TV service? I'd rather not be relying on Google for TV streaming.

First, you can play YouTube without any problem on Firestick, they made the change 2 years ago. Second, you should give the new Chromecast device a try, it's far much better than Roku. Third, Google is asking Roku to support VP9, which is a much superior video coding format, I don't see any issue with this ask.

Either YouTube requires VP9 and then everybody has to implement it, or it allows other codecs and leaves Roku alone.

What's the point of singling them out?

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#62
post #31

Roku is similarly evil towards smaller apps, like demanding a cut of app revenue after the app gets a large user base.

What percentage does Roku take? I wasn't aware that they were in the same rent-seeking game as the other app stores. They do talk about their "Platform Revenue," but it seems that's mostly generated from ads.

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#63
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite ready to take out the pitchforks... > Roku says Google has threatened to require Roku to use certain chip sets or memory cards that would force Roku to increase the price of its hardware product, which competes directly with Google's Chromecast. This could simply mean Google is requiring chips with hardware VP9 support > Roku alleges Google has asked it to favor YouTube music results from voice commands…

Agree on the second one, but why tf should Google force them to support vp9? If they want to save some money there to stay competitive it's none of Google's business.

Doesn't it cost Google more in either bandwidth or patent fees if they don't support VP9?

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#64
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is. If their app is open and full screen, search within the app first.

No it isn’t. If you have Google maps open and suddenly decide you want to go to McDonald’s, then sure, that voice command should go to Google Maps. But if you make a voice command to send an email to someone, it shouldn’t open Gmail instead of your default mail app just because Google maps is open. Similarly, if you’re watching a video on YouTube and want to search for a cat video, sure, the voice command should sear…

But YouTube is a music streaming platform. The most popular, in fact (no, not YouTube music). I constantly listen to music across both Spotify and YouTube. YouTube serves video and doesn't present music in the way we usually think of it, albums sorted by artist, chronologically presented... But that isn't really how the younger gen listens to music. It is a music app and a common way a lot of people consume their music.

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#65
post #55
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite ready to take out the pitchforks... > Roku says Google has threatened to require Roku to use certain chip sets or memory cards that would force Roku to increase the price of its hardware product, which competes directly with Google's Chromecast. This could simply mean Google is requiring chips with hardware VP9 support > Roku alleges Google has asked it to favor YouTube music results from voice commands…

> if I have an app open, voice search works within that app This is not how Siri or the Google Assistant works on iOS, Android, or Apple TV.

Roku does not support multitasking. I would not expect a voice search to close the app I'm using. If I want to switch apps to listen to music, I could hit the home button, then voice search and let music preferences launch the appropriate app.

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#66
post #14
post #2

> Roku alleges Google has asked it to favor YouTube music results from voice commands made on the Roku remote while the YouTube app is open, even if the user's music preference is set to default to another music app, like Pandora. > Roku says Google has threatened to require Roku to use certain chip sets or memory cards that would force Roku to increase the price of its hardware product, which competes directly with…

I'm not quite ready to take out the pitchforks... > Roku says Google has threatened to require Roku to use certain chip sets or memory cards that would force Roku to increase the price of its hardware product, which competes directly with Google's Chromecast. This could simply mean Google is requiring chips with hardware VP9 support > Roku alleges Google has asked it to favor YouTube music results from voice commands…

YouTube music is a different product from YouTube itself.

If I said "search wikipedia for thing"

I'd expect to get wikipedia results back, not YouTube videos about wikipedia and thing

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#67
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if I have the notion that search from a button on the remote is universal and I want to be taken directly to that content elsewhere. That’d be like suggesting Siri should only fetch content from the active app. It’s a signal for ranking, but not an absolute one.

That's what they are asking! Take it into account while ranking, not remove all other results: "[...] favor YouTube music results from voice commands made on the Roku remote while the YouTube app is open" Key word is "favor"

If I'm asking it to play music, favouring YouTube music means playing it from there

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#69
post #2

> Roku alleges Google has asked it to favor YouTube music results from voice commands made on the Roku remote while the YouTube app is open, even if the user's music preference is set to default to another music app, like Pandora. > Roku says Google has threatened to require Roku to use certain chip sets or memory cards that would force Roku to increase the price of its hardware product, which competes directly with…

> Roku alleges Google has asked it to favor YouTube music results from voice commands made on the Roku remote while the YouTube app is open, even if the user's music preference is set to default to another music app, like Pandora

This is what my Amazon Echo Show is doing when Youtube is open on it, and I find it rather logical and convenient. That lets me search on youtube with my voice.

disc: Google employee

Re: Roku says it may lose YouTube TV app after Google made anti-competitive demands

#70
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that’s not what Google is asking of Roku.

It is. If their app is open and full screen, search within the app first.

The distinction is that YouTube and YouTube music are different apps
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