In a blog post posted Thursday by the streaming service, tensions between Roku TV and Google were made public to customers. After months of unsuccessful negotiations, Roku accuses Google of making anti-competitive demands.
Google responded to the deadlock in negotiations by announcing that YouTube would cease distribution on Roku devices from December 9th.
Roku posted a Thursday blog post accusing Google of making anticompetitive demands in carriage deals, such as requiring Roku implement a YouTube search results row within the Roku interface. Roku claimed that Google blocks users from searching for music and voice searches, as well as blocking relevant searches not found in YouTube's results.
The blog post stated that doing business with a company as powerful and large as Google presents complex challenges. Our concerns with Google are not money-related. We have not requested any changes to our existing financial agreement. Roku doesn't earn any money from YouTube's ad-supported video sharing service, while Google makes hundreds of million dollars from the YouTube app.
Roku claimed that Google's demands are hostile to consumers and give it access vast quantities of consumer data about Roku users.
Roku's agreement to distribute YouTube TV apps expired in April. The company pulled the app from its stores after failing to negotiate a new deal with Google. Roku has repeatedly accused Google of making unreasonable demands, despite not requiring similar data sharing or search features on other platforms such as Apple TV.
A spokesperson for Google said that they have continued to work closely with Roku since our negotiations earlier this year to reach a solution that benefits both parties. Roku made unproductive and baseless claims again, rather than trying to work constructively alongside us.
This blog was published just one week after Sens. Chuck Grassley and Amy Klobuchar introduced a bipartisan bill to combat anticompetitive behavior within the tech industry. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Chuck Grassley, (R-IA). The American Innovation and Choice Online Act would prohibit similar behavior as Roku alleged in its Thursday blog. It would also ban self-preferencing and discriminating towards competitors content.
Roku supports bipartisan efforts like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which modernizes our competition laws, promotes innovation and protects consumers in the Digital Age. John Kelly, Roku's senior vice president of corporate affairs, stated this in a statement released earlier this week.
Roku informed The Verge Wednesday, that company representatives had been in touch with legislators over these concerns.
Updated at 11:08 AM ET on 10/21/19: Included a statement by Google
