Top line
Roku’s shares rose nearly 20% on Wednesday after the company announced it had signed a new long-term deal with Google to keep YouTube on its streaming platform – avoiding an impending deadline and months of messy negotiations to end.
The new deal is a huge win for Roku and ends months of tense negotiations.
Important facts
Video streaming service Roku announced On Wednesday it had signed a new multi-year deal with Google to keep YouTube and YouTube TV on its platform, although neither company disclosed details of the agreement.
Roku’s stock rose over 18% to around $ 257 per share as investors cheered the good news, even though stocks are still in the red overall in 2021.
The new agreement avoids a possible YouTube blackout – the previous deal expires later this month – and allows Roku’s more than 56 million active customers to continue to watch Google’s service without interruption.
The latest development is a huge win for Roku after months of sparring with Google: The company repeatedly warned earlier this year that an agreement could be reached as Google is taking its YouTubeTV app off the platform for over five months in tense negotiations.
In addition, Roku alleged that Google had made anti-competitive claims – a fact that Google publicly denied, and the conflict even drew the attention of Congress in October.
Losing YouTube and YouTube TV would have been a blow to Roku as it looks like customers will continue to be loyalty over the holiday season, as rivals like Apple and Amazon both offer YouTube on their respective streaming platforms.
