Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

Post by kschwab » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

jsnell wrote: post #51

I'm a bit confused about the logic here. Roku seems to be claiming that YouTube TV has a dominant position, and Google is threatening to withhold it to get unfair benefits for the unrelated YouTube app. But the directionality is the wrong way around; YouTube TV the smaller of those services by orders of magnitude. It's dominates nothing at all, and it's a small miracle that it still exists at all. How could it possib…

Post by jerf » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 3:11 PM UTC

kschwab wrote: post #10

gwbas1c wrote: post #4

Does Youtube TV still have commercials for on-demand content? Back at the beginning, I signed up for a trial. The first thing I did was try some on-demand, and it made me sit through A LOT of commercials before the content started. Considering that Youtube TV was 4-5x the cost of Netflix and Amazon Prime, and both are commercial-free, I canceled immediately. I watch so little TV that it's cheaper to just buy the show…

It does, because it's essentially the same thing as old school cable TV. You're getting access to ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC, Fox, FX, CNN, TNT, EPSN, BBC America, Food Network, HGTV, and so on. There's not really any service that offers (all of) that content without commercials. You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials. Which is similar to what y…

Post by kschwab » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 3:23 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #54

kschwab wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does, because it's essentially the same thing as old school cable TV. You're getting access to ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC, Fox, FX, CNN, TNT, EPSN, BBC America, Food Network, HGTV, and so on. There's not really any service that offers (all of) that content without commercials. You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials. Which is similar to what y…

"You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials." Has this changed? When I tried YouTubeTV a couple of years ago, you could record things to the DVR, and sometimes not only would they not let you fast forward through the commercials, they replaced them with their own completely un-fast-forwardable commercials. Sometimes it would let you fast for…

Post by selfhoster11 » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 4:23 PM UTC

mitchdoogle wrote: post #47

lostphilosopher wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we have collective amnesia around just how bad "traditional cable" is/was (in no particular order): 1. Tons of ads 2. Ads with terrible content 3. Expensive 4. Piecemeal content (having to pay for multiple packages to get all the programs you're interested in, some options being nearly mutually exclusive) 5. You could either watch live at a time you didn't choose, record (hassle), or use a pretty terrible "on…

Issue 4 (piecemeal content) is a bit ridiculous if you think about it. Netflix, as an example, has enough content to last a person their entire life and adding more every month.

Post by dv_dt » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

helipad wrote: post #5

The streaming landscape is frustrating as an end user. I have a Roku TV and have used YouTube TV, Hulu and Sling for live TV. YouTube TV and Hulu seem to keep increasing their prices to the point where there's not much difference from traditional cable, other than it's easier to cancel. But then there are so many caveats. Bally Sports doesn't appear to be available in my local market to stream our MLB team. I also ne…