Google: We put YouTube TV in the main YouTube app. What now, Roku?

Enlarge / Google tells users where they can find YouTube TV now: inside the regular YouTube app. (credit: Google)

Previously on Google versus Roku: Roku and Google needed to renew the contract for YouTube TV, Google's $65-per-month cable TV replacement, on Roku's TV platform. The two companies weren't able to come to an agreement on the new contract, resulting in YouTube TV being pulled from the Roku store. Oh no! While existing customers could still use the YouTube TV app they had already installed, new users couldn't sign up. Will the two companies ever be able to settle their differences, or is their friendship ruined forever?

The next exciting episode in this saga aired on Friday, when Google announced in a blog post that it was just going to run an end-around on Roku and stick the YouTube TV app in the YouTube app. YouTube and YouTube TV exist as separate apps, and while the YouTube TV contract expired and the app was taken off the Roku store, the YouTube contract does not expire until December.

Since the YouTube app is still running, Google was able to quickly shove YouTube TV functionality into it. On the side navigation menu, the last link in the list reads, "Go to YouTube TV." This is not unprecedented-it's actually the way YouTube Music works, too, with a sort of app-within-an-app interface.

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