Google and Amazon have ended what was essentially a Silicon Valley cold war in regard to video streaming, agreeing to integrate each other’s apps into their respective video ecosystems.
Under the agreement, the flagship YouTube app—which was pulled from Amazon’s devices in 2017—will be re-integrated into Amazon Fire TV OTT devices, as well as smart TVs powered by Fire TV. YouTube Kids and the YouTube TV vMVPD app will also be integrated into the Fire TV ecosystem later this year, the announcement said.
Conversely, users of Chromecast OTT dongles, devices with Chromecast built in, and Android TV-based devices, will have access to Amazon Prime Video.
It’s not included in the press release the two companies put out this morning, but Amazon is also once again selling Chromecast—the product had previously been unavailable in the world’s biggest online store.
“Bringing with some of our latest flagship of the social media channel YouTube experience to Amazon Fire TV gives our users even some of the more essential ways to watch the both the creators and videos they have love and affection,” revealed the global head of product partnerships at YouTube, Heather Rivera, in a interview and press release.
Added Andrew Bennett, who is the head of worldwide business development for Amazon Prime Video. “No matter whether watching the latest season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, catching teams go head-to-head on Thursday Night Football or even renting a new-release movie, most of the users will have even more ways to stream what they want, whenever they want, it even does not matter wherever they are.”
