Youtube TV is going nuclear on Roku

Okay, but honestly, who does Roku think they are?

I seem to recall a place and time when Microsoft was sued by the US government in an anti-trust case won by the government to break up their bundling of Microsoft's commingling of the code of its operating system with its Internet Explorer browser.

How is this any different?

Well we now know for sure Roku is the one pulling the app. Guessing they want a piece of that subscription

quote:

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YouTube users will start seeing a “Go to YouTube TV” option in the main YouTube app over the next few days.

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I just got the email from Google.

A genius "frick you" maneuver by Google. Will be interesting to see how Roku responds.

Youtube should have done this a long time ago.

I absolutely love Rokus but I mean, come on. Google is going to win that every time.

quote:

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I seem to recall a place and time when Microsoft was sued by the US government in an anti-trust case won by the government to break up their bundling of Microsoft's commingling of the code of its operating system with its Internet Explorer browser.

How is this any different?

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FTC/DoJ had an inquiry into Microsoft anti-competitive practices in the early 90s. As a result of that, Microsoft promised to the DoJ it would not tie other Microsoft products to the sale of Windows, in an effort to avoid charges of monopolization. That doesn't mean nobody can bundle products, just Microsoft agreed that it wouldn't do so.

Then, years later, Microsoft wove Windows and IE together in such a way so that they could claim IE was a feature integral to Windows, and not a separate product bundled (making them not in violation of the prior agreement). But really they were in violation of their prior agreement by forcing this technicality. So the judge ordered them to stop and commit to their agreement. Roku/Google has no prior agreement not to bundle products.

Microsoft was found guilty of committing monopolization in the end, and there was ample testimony and evidence that Microsoft was intentionally doing this (amongst many other things things) to choke their competitors out of the market and give themselves the monopoly position they had been accused of for years. Section 2 of the Sherman Act defining monopolization specifies that first, market dominance to the degree of monopoly has to be established and second, it had to be gained as a result of unlawful exclusionary conduct. The government was right to find them guilty of this, though the initial decision to break them up may have been heavy handed. I don't think this applies to either party in this situation.

Unless I'm mistaken,I believe Roku is the top streaming device so I believe they have the upper hand at the moment. I have 5 Roku TVs in my house for guest rooms and outdoor TVs. My main TVs are Samsung smart TVs. Without a doubt the user experience is far smoother on the Roku sets for accessing streaming services. The Samsung TVs, like Android TVs I've had are clunky and awkward in their execution. I don't use YouTube TV so missing that is not a concern. For me, I hope Roku wins the war and survives as I would not care to use another device. I use Vudu for my movie library and Firestick does not allow it on their device so that is a deal breaker.

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I'm more pointing out the hypocrisy being displayed by Google. I'm not excited at all. None of them give a shite about data they just want to create a monopoly. frick Google and frick Apple. Im actually more on Roku's side, but I know they are no better.