Advertisement

Your YouTube apps on Roku are safe: Talking Tech podcast

YouTuber name not sticking? Here is how to change your YouTube channel name

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

More: Daily news, true crime, and more USA TODAY podcasts

Hey there listeners, it's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Big news if you own a Roku device, remember that dispute that Roku was having with Google over YouTube and YouTube TV, and the app for YouTube TV was pulled if you were a new user. And there was this looming threat of the main YouTube app getting removed as well. Well, it turns out that dispute has been settled, YouTube and YouTube TV will remain on Roku devices after both sides reached a deal in their carriage dispute. In statements emailed to USA Today, both YouTube and Roku confirmed a deal has been reached, which means that Google will continue distribute both YouTube and the YouTube TV apps to Roku streaming devices.

The deal arrives just before a deadline of December 9th, when the YouTube app was scheduled to no longer be available to new Roku users. So what that would've meant was if you just got a Roku and you wanted to get the YouTube app after December 9th, it would be there on their channel store or a way to search for it.

Now, this already happened for YouTube TV. If you were a YouTube TV subscriber, and maybe you just got it Roku back around April, Roku was pulling that app from its store because what they call is "unfair terms," set by Google. Google then responded in a blog post, claiming that Google wanted to renew its deal with Roku under its current conditions, but Roku wanted a new deal that involved the primary YouTube app, and that's where they came to odds. It got to the point where Google then added YouTube TV to their main YouTube app. So if you ever went to the primary YouTube app on Roku, they were would be a YouTube TV option in the corner and it would flip you right to YouTube TV. So that was kind of your way around it.

But now you no longer need to worry about it, YouTube's here to stay. YouTube TV is here to stay, if you have a Roku everything's done. Now, we just have to wait for the next carriage dispute, because it feels like this was something we thought we were rid of where we moved to the streaming era, getting away a little bit from cable TV, but this is just as much a problem with streaming as it is with cable. So, now it's onto the next one and who knows what that'll be, but I'm sure there will be more disputes like this down the road. We will have them all covered for you though. Be sure to go to tech.USAtoday.com for all that news and much more.

Listeners let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcast. Don't forget we have a newsletter too. If you want tech news delivered straight to your inbox subscribe to the Talking Tech newsletter, go to newsletters.USAtoday.com for more. You've been listening to Talking Tech, we'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Your YouTube apps on Roku are safe: Talking Tech podcast