Richard Goodwin 07/12/2017 - 9:14am

Amazon and Google have MAJOR BEEF and it has resulted in Google blocking YouTube access inside ALL Amazon Fire TV units

Sometimes it’s hard to see who is at fault in a dispute. There are always two sides to a feud, and the on-going beef between Amazon and Google is a testament to this fact.

But now things have escalated and Google has blocked YouTube access on all Amazon Fire TV products as well as the company’s Amazon Echo Show. So what happened? Can’t these billion dollar companies just get along for the greater good?

In a word: no.

Amazon will not retail Google’s Chromecast, nor its Google Home range of goods, as you may have discovered, and the reason for this is that they compete directly with Amazon’s own products. But where it gets odder is that Amazon sells Roku and Apple TV devices which makes me think this beef runs a lot deeper than either party is letting on.

Here’s a statement that Google issued about why it has blocked YouTube on Amazon Fire devices:

“We’ve been trying to reach an agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other’s products and services. But Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of Nest’s latest products. Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and FireTV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon.”

Google’s position, therefore, while slightly annoying for users, does make sense. Amazon is clearly going out of its way to scupper sales of Google Home and Chromecast; even more so when you consider the retailer’s platform is meant to be completely agnostic. This indicates to me that Amazon has taken a business decision on this issue and implemented a plan to do all it can to reduce the threat of Google’s hardware to Amazon’s own devices.

You will still be able to access YouTube on the Amazon Fire TV until January 1, however, so if you’re a user, I’d start making the most of it because I don’t see either company backing down on this one.