San Francisco: A week after streaming media player Roku removed the YouTube TV app for new users, Google is countering by bringing the cord-cutting service to the main YouTube client.
Google has placed a aceGo to YouTube TV” shortcut at the bottom of the main YouTube menu on Roku devices. This will load the YouTube TV experience that is no longer available as a standalone application.
This strategy comes as the Play Movies & TV client is shutting down in favour of one YouTube app for everything, 9To5Google reported.
This update will be available to all YouTube TV members on Roku over the next few days, and we will expand to as many devices as we can over time, the report said.
The company said it is “still working to agree with Roku to ensure continued access to YouTube TV for our mutual customers”.
They currently still have access to the app, but Google is having “discussions with other partners to secure free streaming devices in case YouTube TV members face any access issues on Roku.
Outside of the current YouTube TV dispute, Google said it’s “also in ongoing, long-term conversations with Roku to certify that new devices meet our technical requirements”.
Roku is said to be unhappy with a requirement that future hardware supports the more efficient, but computationally-intensive AV1 codec. This requires more expensive chipsets and, therefore, raises the cost of streaming devices.
The current deal with Roku for the main YouTube client runs until December of 2021.