Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

axios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 407 posts

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

#321

Post by esrauch »

denkmoon wrote: post #319
gtirloni wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromecasts have ads? I've never seen one in my life on them. Are you talking about free YouTube? I liked the first Chromecast and since I upgraded to the latest with Google TV, I think it's the best experience ever. I sometimes want to take mine to friends' place so I don't have you suffer through whatever horrible smart TV interface they have.

Do you not have the leanback launcher/LauncherX which has integrated ads? They put this on my Shield TV and Chromecast Ultra. I now own an Apple TV. https://www.google.com/amp/s/9to5google.com/2020/10/01/googl...

The normal phone-controlled Chromecast definitely doesn't have ads (but ads will play when watching YouTube unless you have premium obviously)

I feel like that experience is optimal. I don't want any launcher experience on the tv, much less any ads.

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

#322

Post by christophilus »

johnvaluk wrote: post #244

I've used Roku in various incarnations (box, TV) since it was released and was excited when the official YouTube app was finally available. But lately, it's been painful to watch YouTube due to the constant and disruptive advertising. Part of me is looking forward to the app being pulled from Roku, since it's so much like the cable TV experience I thought I was escaping. I don't feel this way about the other premium…

I just watch YouTube with ad blocking. I do feel slightly guilty, as it means my favorite channels don’t get paid for my views, but I justify it by telling myself that most of them have sponsors that they mention in-video.

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

#324

Post by CountHackulus »

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…

Same, Nebula/Curiosity Stream, plus YouTube and Crunchyroll (free tier) is more than enough to entertain me when I need it. I don't want to buy content by the "channel" and I'll do literally whatever I need to for it to stay that way.

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

#325

Post by stefan_ »

sassifrass wrote: post #110
015a wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure they are. In mega-corporations like Alphabet, even the head of YouTube is a middle-manager.

The “head of YouTube” is Susan Wojcicki [1]. Her title is CEO of YouTube, she reports directly to the CEO of Alphabet, Sundar Pichai [2], and is frequently floated as a candidate for next CEO of Alphabet if Mr. Pichai left. She has thousands of people in her reporting chain. She is about as far from a middle-manager as you are from being Alphabet’s CEO. Please inform yourself a bit more before making completely outla…

Hah, Wojcicki being the next CEO would be the end of Google. Who needs a CEO that is despised in their organisation and utterly ignorant to what is happening on YT?

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

#326

Post by sixothree »

addicted wrote: post #295
cosmotic wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube makes ad revenue from Roku users, Roku wants a cut.

That’s so f’ing messed up. I paid extra for Roku because I thought they made their money by selling me a product that I own as opposed to one that owns me.

Brigading much?

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

#327

Post by Wistar »

skipPiGuy wrote: post #299
Wistar wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does their advertising feel so disruptive? Is it because it feels like something just broke for a moment? It seems that an ad will often be inserted right at a key moment. Maybe it is that I feel like I have to constantly hold the remote, ready to "skip" the rest of the ads, except now they are getting less and less skippable. Also, lately, they are running two ads instead of one. It is so annoying I have been wa…

I made an AI powered skip app to automatically skip the ads for me. Conveniently enough, it also detects Netflix/Hulu "Skip Intro" button, "Skip Re-Cap" button, and maybe even the "Are You Still Watching" button. Best thing I ever made. Literally cannot fall asleep to YouTube without it. Just threw it out on GitHub if anyone is interested: https://github.com/SkipSentry/Skip-Pi

Oh, man! Falling asleep to youtube is (was) my PRIMARY reason for watching youtube. The recent creep of ads considerably reduces the soporific quality of dozing off to a Malcolm Gladwell conversation or a Royal Institute lecture.

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

#328

Post by sixothree »

Pxtl wrote: post #116
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…

As a user, I see Google's point on this. I often get annoyed when I want to search within the system I'm using and get pushed to a global search, when I want to stay in the app. I'm sure to the app developers this is doubly annoying because it means taking their users away to other platforms. Ironically Google themselves are pretty bad about this - on any given google product it's a roll of the dice what the scope of…

You can search within the youtube app for youtube content.

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

#329

Post by sixothree »

starik36 wrote: post #304
pipeline_peak wrote: post #300

You can barely buy a TV without smart capability these days. I find it weird how Roku is even recognized as a platform and receive this much media coverage. They haven’t had a unique product in like 10 years. They are the Yelp of the antiquated stream box world

The reason people are buying them is because the built-in software is so bad and laggy. I have a Samsung and my primary way to view anything is through the plugged in Amazon Fire stick.

Samsung TVs are a great example of why people like Roku.

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

#330

Post by jjeaff »

mdoms wrote: post #318
gadrev wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lately, the Chromecast has become substantially worse, with many more ads and of course a stupid update nobody asked for showing kind of a tablet UI when you're in "idle" mode with the phone connected to the TV (idk how you're supposed to operate it, but I don't care, ofc it's a clickbait showcase screen). Before the increase in ad frequency (and some bugs like a random unlinking of the device when you put the app in…

> Lately, the Chromecast has become substantially worse, with many more ads and of course a stupid update nobody asked for showing kind of a tablet UI when you're in "idle" mode with the phone connected to the TV (idk how you're supposed to operate it, but I don't care, ofc it's a clickbait showcase screen). Are you sure you're using a Chromecast? Not only has my Chromecast never once shown me an ad, but I have no id…

The new Chromecast is a dongle that comes with a remote and has a Google tv interface built on Android tv. You can still cast to it like the old Chromecast. You are likely using one the older, cast only devices which have been discontinued.
Post reply on HN