Google Releases YouTube TV App for Apple TV (and Roku)

A lot of people are looking at HomePod’s exclusive first-class support for Apple Music and see selfish intent. Apple isn’t working with Spotify or other services because they want everyone to use Apple’s media ecosystem for everything, is the thinking. Maybe! But maybe HomePod only works with Apple Music for now. I don’t know, and Apple isn’t going to tell anyone.

But look at Apple TV. There’s still no “skinny bundle” from Apple itself but now you use Apple TV to watch YouTube’s TV package, Playstation’s, and I’m sure others. There’s certainly no lock-in to the Apple media ecosystem on Apple TV. I think a lot of this is just a big complicated mess behind the scenes.

(To be clear, because I see a lot of misinformation on this front: You can play Spotify or anything else on HomePod, but only over AirPlay, not just by talking to the device like you can with Apple Music and iTunes Store music.)

★ Friday, 2 February 2018