Ongoing Roku, YouTube Standoff Could Cause Connected TV Shakeup in December

After six months of a stalemate, Roku and YouTube are once again going public about their impasse, with the connected TV company accusing the tech giant this morning of making anticompetitive demands for carrying YouTube TV—and their faceoff could permanently shakeup the CTV landscape if the companies don't make up by December. Roku stopped carrying YouTube TV in April after the two sides failed to reach a carriage renewal. Roku alleged the tech company is asking Roku to manipulate consumer search by forcing Roku to block non-YouTube results for users inside the YouTube TV app. Google responded by launching a feature that allowed users to access YouTube TV from inside the YouTube app. That option is now in jeopardy as the distribution deal between the main YouTube app and Roku is set to expire Dec 9. If the two sides fail to come to an agreement before the deadline, new Roku smart TVs and connected devices will not have the YouTube app, though existing devices will still carry the service. Roku is the largest connected TV platform in the U.S., reaching 55 million active accounts in August. Roku Yanks YouTube TV App as Dispute With Google Escalates In a blog post published Thursday, Roku said it continues to pursue talks with Google, but “the threat remains that Google may remove YouTubeTV from the Roku platform.” The connected TV platform continued to insist the dispute isn’t about money. “We have not asked for a single change in the financial terms of our existing agreement. In fact, Roku does not earn a single dollar from YouTube’s ad supported video sharing service today, whereas Google makes hundreds of millions of dollars from the YouTube app on Roku,” the company said. Roku is alleging that Google interferes with Roku’s independent search results, requiring that it preferences YouTube over other content providers. The company also claims that Google discriminates against Roku by demanding search, voice and data features that they do not insist on from other streaming platforms. Google has vehemently denied the claims, previously stating that it offered Roku a deal renewal under the existing terms, but Roku “chose to use this as an opportunity to renegotiate a separate deal encompassing the YouTube main app.” “Since our negotiations with Roku earlier this year, we’ve continued to work with them to find a resolution that benefits our mutual users. Roku has once again chosen to make unproductive and baseless claims rather than try to work constructively with us,” Google said in a statement on Thursday. “Since we haven’t been able to continue our conversations in good faith, our partnership for all new Roku devices will unfortunately end on Dec 9. We are, however, giving Roku the ability to continue distributing both YouTube and YouTube TV apps to all existing users to make sure they are not impacted." The allegations come as antitrust investigations into Google multiply in both the U.S. and Europe, including a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and 11 states. This isn’t the first time Roku has had a public-facing carriage spat. WarnerMedia and Roku struck a distribution deal for HBO Max last October after months of negotiations. In September 2020, it reached a deal for Peacock after Comcast threatened to remove access to dozens of NBCUniversal apps. In January 2020, Roku and Fox resolved their distribution standoff and reached a new agreement just in time for Super Bowl 54, which aired on Fox.