[bsharitt]

After the whole HBOMax debacle, I'm not sure if I trust Roku's side of the story and am wondering if the real issue isn't "Youtube TV won't give us a slice of their pie". I used to be a huge fan of Roku when they were the neutral streaming box that was open to all services, but the HBOMax nonsense last year soured me on them.

[kschwab]

Some detail here: https://popculture.com/streaming/news/roku-founder-reveals-w...

"Roku's standard terms for partner channels include 20% of subscription fees and 30% of ad inventory, which has driven away Peacock, as it is currently airing fewer than five minutes of ads per hour. Meanwhile, WarnerMedia has been looking to retire the HBO service now sold through Roku to promote HBO Max, which Roku has turned down singularly."

To me it just reads like Roku has grown it's subscriber base to the point where they can negotiate with content providers in the same way that cable companies used to. Which isn't great for end users, but it is what it is. Both HBOMax and Peacock ended up on Roku, so some deal was reached in both cases.

[bsharitt]

This is exactly where died for me, when I went from being a buyer of their hardware to a potential source of monthly revenue and made it more difficult to get content I want as a result. They established a customer base and good will and once that was in place, the rent seeking started. At this point once a company that make a product I like goes public, it seems like a good tome to start looking for alternatives.

[kschwab]

I feel the same way, but is there any safe haven? I assume Chromecasts or Amazon Fire would be subject to the same situation.

[simmons]

I switched away from Roku to an Nvidia Shield (an Android TV device) precisely because of the Roku HBO Max thing. Maybe these smaller players don't have the sheer number of captive eyeballs needed to demand such commissions. Although I guess HBO would still have the Play Store fees? In any case, I haven't noticed this sort of customer-hurting hard negotiations yet.

[ghaff]

As long as you can watch something on the web, you can always cast it, right? (I find Chromecast is an underappreciated device from Google. I basically never touch any of the smartTV features on my TV. I do everything from phone, tablet, or Chromebook.)

[bagacrap]

Google hasn't evolved Chromecast past a cheap, dumb dongle since it was first released. No telling what the future holds but the current trajectory is promising.

[SimianLogic2]

Seconded. Roku started out as the "we partner with everyone" streaming device and all this "we're a platform now" bullshit is such a consumer betrayal. I think I've bought 4 or 5 over the years since we cut cable. I'm not interested in Roku streaming services. I don't care if they get a cut of ad revenue of the app I use on my own hardware.

I do care that I couldn't get HBO for a year. The Amazon stick is pretty trash, but I'm pretty happy with the Chromecast. I've got one more to switch over and all our Rokus can go to e-waste.