Google has responded to Roku’s statement Monday, denying the claims made by Roku and noting that the negotiations between the streaming platform and YouTube TV’s parent company are ongoing.
Roku sent out a statement to customers Monday morning saying that Google is trying to set “predatory, anticompetitive and discriminatory terms” while negotiating to keep YouTube TV on Roku. Roku claimed that Google wants preferential treatment when it comes to ad placement and content search results. The statement also claimed that Google was demanding that Roku update hardware to meet Google’s specs, a move that would likely increase the cost of Roku products, putting the affordable streaming devices at a higher price point than Google’s Chromecast.
Google has now responded with its own statement, shown below.
“We have been working with Roku in good faith to reach an agreement that benefits our viewers and their customers. Unfortunately, Roku often engages in these types of tactics in their negotiations. We’re disappointed that they chose to make baseless claims while we continue our ongoing negotiations,” a Google spokesperson said, via The Verge. “All of our work with them has been focused on ensuring a high quality and consistent experience for our viewers. We have made no requests to access user data or interfere with search results. We hope we can resolve this for the sake of our mutual users.”