The image is by Alex Castro.
An escalating feud between two of the most popular streaming apps in the world could be about to boil over. The YouTube app will be removed from the channel store on December 9th unless a new distribution agreement is reached.
There have been consequences for consumers caught in the middle, as the YouTube TV app was pulled from the channel store earlier this year, though it can still be accessed by customers who already downloaded it. The more popular YouTube app faces the same cutoff and store removal.
Over the last several months, both companies have continued to argue and have expressed their frustration with each other. The company has accused the company of anticompetitive behavior and said the company's terms and requests go beyond the requests of other major streaming services. The behavior of this monopolist was called an "unchecked monopolist" by the company.
Losing YouTube would be a blow to the platform. After a year without an official YouTube app, the two sides came to a deal and the app returned. Apple has been able to keep YouTube on its Apple TV set-top boxes despite its differences with Google.
One of the main appeals of Roku is its simplicity and vast app selection. It would hurt the reputation of the company if it had a large hole in its app catalog. This type of situation always comes down to the wire, as it did recently when NBCUniversal and YouTube TV were able to settle carriage talks without any channels being lost. If things go sideways, it would be a good idea to download YouTube to your Roku devices.
