Roku and Google have reached an agreement that will allow YouTube services to continue to be available on the Roku platform. The announcement comes eight months after the official YouTube TV app was pulled from the Roku channel store and just a day before Roku would have been obliged to remove access to YouTube from the platform.
The companies had been deadlocked in disagreement about the distribution of YouTube services on the Roku platform over the data, search and prominence requirements that Roku regarded as unreasonable.
Also at issue was support for the AV1 compression scheme, which is not provided on low end devices. Roku said that supporting AV1 would increase the cost of products.
Roku announced a multi-year extension with Google for distribution of YouTube and YouTube TV, saying. “This agreement represents a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform.”
Google said in a statement that Roku customers will continue to have access to YouTube and that the YouTube TV app will once again be available in the Roku store for both new and existing customers, adding “We are pleased to have a partnership that benefits our mutual users”.
Neither party commented on any arrangements that had been part of the carriage contract dispute.