Recognition: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
- The YouTube TV channel on Roku devices will no longer be available unless you have already installed it.
- However, Google has created a link to YouTube TV within the regular YouTube channel, which is still available on Rokus.
- This is a great solution for YTTV subscribers who aren’t excited to be caught in the middle of the Google and Roku argument.
Last week we heard about an intense argument between Google and Roku. The argument arises from Google’s hardware requirements for future high-resolution content that will be streamed via the various YouTube apps. The gist of it is that Google wants Roku to commit to upgrading the quality of their hardware to support this content, and Roku doesn’t want to.
The argument took a turn when Roku refused to renew his contract with Google’s YouTube TV service. This resulted in the YouTube TV channel being removed on Roku devices. To be clear, anyone who has already installed the channel will not lose it, but those who cannot find it will not be able to find it.
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Now Google has come up with a cheeky solution to this impasse. The regular YouTube channel on Roku devices, which is still available to everyone, has been updated with a link to the YouTube TV service. Clicking on the link takes you to the familiar YTTV interface.
In other words, people who don’t have a YouTube TV channel on their Roku today can still watch YTTV content. You just need to do this through the regular YouTube app for now. In a way, it’s even more convenient as it has two of the biggest YouTube services under one roof.
The contract between Google and Roku for the regular YouTube app will only expire at the end of this year. Hopefully by then the two companies can figure this out. However, we would be very surprised if Roku even eliminated the Vanilla YouTube channel as it would make the only major streaming hardware OEM without him.