Roku Decides to Remove USTVnow From The Platform

• Roku informs the removal was in response to a copyright infringement complaint.
• It was a third party content owner who filled the copyright complaint.
• Roku users weren't noticed prior to the removal of this service. 

In a recent turn of events, Roku, the popular media player, has removed the USTVnow service from the platform. The reason, as sighted by the company, seems to be due to a copyright infringement complaint which Roku decided to investigate. However, it was a third party content owner who filed the complaint - and not USTVnow.

Now, for those of you don’t know, USTVnow is a service targeted at American expats and the military, offering a comprehensive list of channels inclusive of ABC and Fox for free. They also have a paid subscription plan which boasts a total of 24 popular channels and comes at a $29/month price tag.

Image courtesy of Supportive Guru

It is worth noting that the removal of the service was not formally informed to the customers, and the act was received by confusion on the part of many. A few users took to Roku’s forum and complained about the sudden disturbances with USTVnow. It is from here that users learned about the removal of the service. “Roku has been asked to remove this channel by the content rights owner,” confirmed one of Roku’s engineers.

However, it is interesting to note that USTVnow actively promotes Roku products on their site’s homepage. So why would they themselves file a copyright complaint? Further inquiry into the matter revealed that it was, in fact, a “third party” content owner, who issued the complaint. Most probably one of the major channels offered with a USTVnow package might have had a problem with the service being available on Roku devices. Or the complaint could even come from a movie or TV show copyright holder, who has an objection against their content being distributed on the device.

Regardless, we will not know for sure until an official statement about the matter comes from Roku themselves. As for now, users are extremely troubled and annoyed with the sudden unavailability of USTVnow from Roku devices.