RELATED: If You Have This Popular TV Provider, You’ve Just Lost 64 Major Channels. In a blog post from Oct. 21, Roku announced that it had yet to reach an agreement with Google over the distribution of its popular YouTube TV and YouTube streaming apps on its platform. As a result, the six-month-long feud may push past the Dec. 9 contract deadline that would see the YouTube app removed from Roku’s channel store, Deadline reports.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb While units that already have the apps installed will continue to have access, the deadline will ensure that no new Roku smart TVs or hardware devices will have access to the services. This means that YouTube TV subscribers who purchase a Roku box or upgrade their hardware would lose access to the more than 85 channels the service provides, according to Business Insider. In response to the company’s latest blog post, Google has said the ongoing negotiations have been difficult and that their removal from the store could be inevitable. “Since our negotiations with Roku earlier this year, we’ve continued to work with them to find a resolution that benefits our mutual users,” the company wrote. “Roku has once again chosen to make unproductive and baseless claims rather than try to work constructively with us. Since we haven’t been able to continue our conversations in good faith, our partnership for all new Roku devices will unfortunately end on December 9. We are, however, giving Roku the ability to continue distributing both YouTube and YouTube TV apps to all existing users to make sure they are not impacted.” At the time, a company spokesperson for Roku issued a statement on Apr. 26 saying: “Google is attempting to use its YouTube monopoly position to force Roku into accepting predatory, anti-competitive, and discriminatory terms that will directly harm Roku and our users.” For more helpful tech news sent straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. RELATED: If You See This Message on Your Roku, Report It Immediately, Experts Say. Roku continued by saying they were trying to keep negotiations between the companies as transparent as possible but admitted the outcome might not be ideal. “As we shared in April, the threat remains that Google may remove YouTubeTV from the Roku platform. We continue to believe that streamers stand to benefit from Google and Roku reaching a fair agreement and we remain committed to trying to achieve that goal. For Roku, this is about maintaining our independence, protecting our customers, and ensuring healthy competition in the streaming industry that benefits millions of consumers.”
