Why would I start developing a channel?

"EnTerr" wrote:

"firedup" wrote:
The ToS allows Roku to block developers at will. That is the observation of OP. It's no big deal. There is risk in investing in Roku development. Businesses deal with risk all the time.

To (presumptuously) finish OP's question, why would one begin to develop for a closed platform, with a proprietary scripting language, and developer unfriendly ToS when one can develop apps with more standard tools which can be sideloaded without restriction to more open platforms with more developer friendly ToS.

Getting on an inexpensive, widely installed platform is a good reason today, and was a very good reason a year ago, but a developer choosing a platform to develop for the future will see both of those advantages fade. Roku should open up their platform and loosen up their ToS.

I agree with this. With FireTV and AndroidTV this year opening "for realz" the flood gates of Android apps to TV streamers, Roku's only hope to hold position is to open player to native apps. But I am afraid they may drag feet till AppleTV opens for iOS apps... and by then it will be "game over".

You might want to read through the Amazon "APP DISTRIBUTION AND SERVICES AGREEMENT" (https://developer.amazon.com/public/support/legal/da).. they not only have similar language in their agreement that includes using their "discretion to make any App available", but they also have a clause that grants them the right to "modify and add to your Apps so that we can collect analytics relating to the Apps, evaluate and enforce our Program policies, and share aggregated information with you and others regarding the Program". The latter is a much scarier proposition to me.

All platform development agreements are going to include language that allows them to pull an app at their discretion. Without it, they open themselves up to any number of legal issues.