Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube

Post by jeffbee » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

samtheprogram wrote: post #124

jeffbee wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LG WebOS has a YouTube TV app and the search button in the remote takes you to the global search function. This doesn’t seem to cause any friction between google and LG. Because YouTube TV seems to work everywhere but on roku I tend to blame roku here.

Or LG WebOS is not a big enough market for Google to care about the experience to put their foot down, at that point they’d rather be on the device (and controlling other devices where it counts). This is all hearsay though and it’s unclear if Google even made such demands to Roku.

Post by inetknght » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #95

dtjb wrote: post #18

I 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…

Post by supernovae » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

ethbr0 wrote: post #47

judge2020 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From Roku's blog post, it seems that Google wants a dedicated area in the global search for YouTube results. For example, If you search for "Last Week Tonight", Google wants a YouTube results row showing clips on their service above results from other content platforms like HBO Max. Basically, Google wants to have the placement that search ads get on their platform on Roku. Previous discussions[0] suggested that it…

It's a great example of what both companies see as their value proposition (to users, and to Wall Street). Roku: aggregating multiple streaming providers in a provider-agnostic way Google: centralizing streaming through the YouTube brand (considering it comprises multiple offerings now) I'm not a huge fan of Roku, due to data collection, but it's apparent who's on the side of the user here. Google/YouTube has finally…

Post by brk » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #52

brk wrote: post #39

The competitive landscape for what is turning out to be the next evolution of in-home video content delivery is just making me realize that the content is not worth the hassle. I'm not going to replace a $100/mo CATV subscription with 10 (or even 5) $10/mo individual subscriptions, where I have to constantly remember which service provides a particular show. I'm not going to have multiple dongles and devices to watch…

I do a round-robin with friends/family where we each pay for a preferred service and share the accounts with everyone in the pool. Every service I've used has been extremely accommodating of this and allows for multiple profiles. If that's not an option, cancelling/pausing subscriptions should work fine. Once you've watched everything on NF, cancel/pause that and get a HBO Max or something.

Post by judge2020 » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

inetknght wrote: post #138

antasvara wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: this isn't meant to defend Google, because their practices are shady and by no means good. What I find interesting here is that Roku is using business practices similar to Apple and nobody seems to have a problem with it. If I told you that an app store was limiting the types of apps you could add to your device while also controlling the update process, lots of HN readers would call that out. As far as I'm awa…

> What I find interesting here is that Roku is using business practices similar to Apple and nobody seems to have a problem with it. True. But I would also argue that there's a different scope. Roku provides a device that allows you to watch video. That's its ultimate purpose. Apple provides multiple devices; their iOS products are meant more for mobile communication. As such it's much more user-interactive. More use…