I get that Sonos, Roku, etc are in a tough spot but this business is structurally to be a good, cheap, dumb terminal. It's no use for Roku to try and get in the way at this point, it just reinforces incentives for players to undercut them with branded sticks (Chromecast, fire tv, apple TV...)
Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
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Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#92Roku should drop the API and just scrape YouTube from the client side. What's Google going to do, block everyone's home IP?
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#93It is so dumb and twisted that there even needs to be a deal. Any web browser can hit youtube, you can probably get to youtube via a web browser anyway on a roku, if not they could in principle do that. Also dumb and twisted that as a paying youtube subscriber, I could buy a computer (a roku) and not be allowed to access youtube on it. Do better, tech.
The issue is that companies like Roku are increasingly making their money by having companies like YouTube TV pay them to carry their apps. Likewise, there are lots of things about these systems that can fall under negotiations. For example, what analytics does Roku get access to for actions taken within apps? Does Roku get insight into what YouTube videos you're watching? From Roku's blog post, it seems that Google…
All of this distracts from the fact that this medium used to be regulated and broadcasters we're required to exhibit fairness, offer news (regulated by fairness), it was free and had minimal ads and was accessible to everyone. We have democratized content creation and lost the good things we developed for "free television," a philosophy of nearly ubiquitous distribution and fairness.
What is the philosophy now? The market is going to yield a spread of reliable information for free? I have to have the means to pay for five different streaming services to get access to all of the valuable content to consider myself informed. It's not just about the latest Marvel movie or Squid Games tripe, it is about an informed citizenry getting access to information. Why is that not part of the debate at all?
This very situation--Google and Netflix fighting over a blanket--is problematic in and of itself and much bigger than both of them put together.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
The actual problem is that running a platform isn't that expensive -- there are a hundred tiny Linux distributions that do it on essentially volunteer work -- but once you control a platform with a large number of users you can use it to shake down anyone who wants to reach them. And then people object to the shakedown and do whatever they can to try and stop it.
Think about what you're saying dude: Hundreds of tiny distributions rely on unpaid volunteers to run a platform. A platform with questionable quality and no real support. Yeah, it isn't expensive under those criteria.
> A platform with questionable quality and no real support
This applies equally well to the small volunteer platforms and the large commercial ones. The scale is different, sure, but the various app stores and platforms that take a cut aren't providing great commercial support or quality control.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#95I get this situation is different since YouTube is looking for concessions on functionality, but I find it hard to defend Roku with their triple-dipping scheme. They charge for the device (I paid over $100 for my 4k HDR box), then they display massive ads covering 50% of the screen, then they want a cut of revenue from content providers as well. Roku burned through a lot of goodwill with their customers during the HB…
I can't say this for everyone, but a tech consumer has to know that just over $100 does not cover the cost of the hardware. It's got to come from somewhere else. I'm usually not much of an Apple fan, but I just switched to the Apple TV and am really liking it. It certainly seems like charging 2x the price for the hardware removes a lot of the incentive to do all the scammy stuff Ruku is involved in; though I guess I can't know for sure, or know the future.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#96Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#97This whole situation really feels like Google has their head stuck up their ass. People are just as likely to leave Roku, as they are to leave YouTube TV. Their subscriber numbers can't be strong enough to justify such idiotic behavior. To me, this sounds like a middle manager gone rogue, and no one higher up has stepped in yet and said "Ok, you shot your shot, but Roku called your bluff, you've taken this way too fa…
This whole situation really feels like Roku has their head stuck up their ass. People are just as likely to leave Roku, as they are to leave YouTube TV. Their customer numbers can't be strong enough to justify such idiotic behavior. To me, this sounds like a middle manager gone rogue, and no one higher up has stepped in yet and said "Ok, you shot your shot, but YouTube called your bluff, you've taken this way too far…
This kind of response appears immature. You could have said the equivalent with something like “you could swap Roku and YouTube TV etc” and it wouldn’t appear petty.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#98This would actually perhaps interest me, then.
I have a CCwGTV, and the voice search drives me up a wall.
me: "hulu"
it: "hello! hope you are enjoying" or whatever it says because it thinks I said hello.
me: "no hulu you idiot"
it: "here are search results for 'no hulu you idiot' on youtube" and takes me to the youtube search results.
Ideally the voice search would get miles better, but until then, I'd do with Youtube just not existing on it, if that is possible.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#99Roku should drop the API and just scrape YouTube from the client side. What's Google going to do, block everyone's home IP?
There is some stuff they can do. I forget the details as many years have passed. Microsoft was doing that for Windows Phone and there were some issues.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#100Funny seeing all the Roku love here.
What I've observed when comparing Roku to other devices.
I buy my apple TV -> I get basically no ads, they don't seem to charge that much to allow folks like youtube tv to have an app on the platform
Roku -> I buy and own my device. They seem to sell advertising all over the device I paid for. They seem to be charging companies for buttons and/or to be able to put an app on the roku platform.
Sorry - not that interested in Roku anymore.