The dispute between Roku and YouTube has escalated.
On Friday morning, Roku said that the YouTube TV app has been removed from its platform, as the contract between the companies has expired. New subscriptions will not be possible until an agreement is reached between the companies.
That being said, the company says that existing YouTube TV subscribers will be able to continue using the service for the time being. YouTube TV is the multichannel video service that provides streaming access to traditional pay TV channels. The regular YouTube app is not impacted.
Earlier this week Roku took the dispute with Google public, warning that the tech giant wanted to manipulate search results and force the company to use chips that could raise the cost of its hardware. “It’s not about money,” a Roku source said at the time. “We are not asking for any more money, not a single dollar more in value.”
In a blog post Friday, YouTube responded in more detail, once again calling Roku’s claims “baseless.” The tech giant said it wanted to renew the YouTube TV terms, but that Roku wanted to also renegotiate the terms for the main YouTube app, which aren’t up until December.
“To be clear, we have never, as they have alleged, made any requests to access user data or interfere with search results,” the post says. “This claim is baseless and false.” It added that “our agreements with partners have technical requirements to ensure a high quality experience on YouTube. Roku requested exceptions that would break the YouTube experience and limit our ability to update YouTube in order to fix issues or add new features.”
A Roku spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement Friday, “It is well past time for Google to embrace the principles that have made streaming so popular for millions of users by giving consumers control of their streaming experience, by embracing fair competition and by ceasing anticompetitive practices. We believe consumers stand to benefit from Google and Roku reaching a fair agreement that preserves these principles and we remain committed to trying to achieve that goal.”
Updated 9:30 a.m. with YouTube blog post.
