Amazon Starts Listing Google’s Chromecast Again, Google Confirms ‘Productive Discussions’
Updated. It looks like a multi-year dispute between Amazon and Google may be coming to a conclusion: Amazon started to list Google’s Chromecast streaming adapter on its site again this week, two years after banning the device from its store. A Google spokesperson confirmed that the two companies are in “productive discussions.”
The device was shown as “currently unavailable” Thursday, meaning that consumers can’t buy it from Amazon just yet. In addition to the regular Chromecast, Amazon also published a listing for the 4K-capable Chromecast Ultra adapter. Separately, Amazon also began to list Apple’s Apple TV again, which follows a previously announced deal between the two companies.
A listing for Chromecast was first spotted by CNet Thursday, and has since been confirmed by Amazon PR. “I can confirm that we are assorting Apple TV and Chromecast,” an Amazon spokesperson told Variety via email, while declining to comment any further on any agreement between the two companies.
However, a Google spokesperson confirmed after the initial publication of this article that the two companies are in fact talking: “We are in productive discussions with Amazon to reach an agreement for the benefit of our mutual customers. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon.”
Amazon and Google had disagreements in the media space for years, but the dispute first got public attention when Amazon decided to ban Google’s streaming devices from its website two years ago. It intensified this fall, when Google began to block YouTube on Amazon’s new Echo Show smart speaker with built-in display — a move that was ostensibly about Amazon violating YouTube’s terms of service.
Amazon responded by implementing a work-around to bring YouTube back to the device. Google struck back by not just once more blocking the video service on the Echo Show, but also threatening to block it on Amazon’s Fire TV devices. At the time, Google publicly blamed the spat on Amazon refusing to sell Google devices on its store.
Variety was first to report last week that engineers within Amazon had been working on deploying yet another work-around to bring YouTube back to the device without Google’s blessing — but now it seems like the two companies may be in the process of working out a deal instead.
Update: 2:07pm: This post was updated with a comment from a Google spokesperson, and tweaked throughout to reflect said statement.
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