Roku and Google today announced that they will not mutually give both of their companies to take a massive gut punch by allowing YouTube to be pulled from Roku devices this month. A new multi-year deal is in place that will assure the most popular streaming app in the world will remain on the most popular streaming platform in the US. The announcement comes one day before the app would have been taken out of the Roku Streaming Channels lineup for anybody who did not already have the app downloaded.
“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached a deal with Roku to continue distributing the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on Roku devices,” said Mariana De Felice, a YouTube spokesperson. ”This means 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 members. We are pleased to have a partnership that benefits our mutual users.”
The agreement will also allow YouTube TV to remain available on Roku. While it has not been announced we would expect to see YouTube TV become part of the lineup of services found in the cable replacement section of the Streaming Channels next to other similar services. This ends months of hyperbolic predictions of doom for Roku in the streaming world. The move would have been a major blow to both companies robbing Roku customers of the popular app and at the same time ensuring that millions of brand new TVs and streaming boxes would not be able to deliver the hugely popular free short-form entertainment to new users on Christmas day. Losing YouTube could have hampered Roku’s momentum overall. Instead, the announcement led to a surge in the company’s stock.
“Roku and Google have agreed to a multi-year extension for both YouTube and YouTube TV,” Roku said in a statement. “This agreement represents a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform.”
