I made a huge mistake buying video content from Google

Once again, Google has proven itself completely inept, having recently announced it will no longer sell TV shows outside of YouTube. As an Nvidia Shield owner, at this point I’m pretty irate.

You see, Google only recently deprecated Google Play Movies on the Shield, the old streaming app where you could purchase TV shows and movies, all in one place, which were also sold directly through the Play Store. That’s all gone, and Google added a store filled with ads to my ad-infested Shield in its place. This became the new home to watch the content I owned, but it’s merely a mirror of YouTube’s store and content, which is impossible to filter or search.

Fun stuff. So now that I’m highly invested in this platform, Google has once again limited my options for viewing and purchasing content, and I’m absolutely done with it.

Google’s content ecosystem practically embodies the law of diminishing returns

Sure, it’s my fault for investing in streaming content I don’t actually own but license, but the tradeoff was always supposed to be convenience. A Blu-ray will always look plenty better than compressed streams, but I have to get off my couch to load the disc, you know what I mean. I can pop a stream on anytime, just about anywhere, and I did once feel this was worth the cost of entry. No longer so. I am so tired of chasing Google’s foolhardy whims just to view what I’ve purchased.

There’s a reason I don’t like to use the YouTube app on Android TV, and that’s because it too is filled with ads. How convenient for Google, amiright? No matter where I go, Google has ensured with updates that my Shield is now infested with ads. Yes, I’ve since sideloaded a new launcher to at least get away from the ads on the home screen, but YouTube is still infested — and you know what app wasn’t? The old Google Play Movies app that to this day is used as the player for the Shop tab on Android TV (just open the Overview screen, the icon is in the middle of the player).

screenshot of disney app showing movies anywhere deal for wreck it ralph

While I’m grateful to have a Movies Anywhere account to back up my movie purchases, no such thing exists for TV shows. So whenever Google inevitably gives up the ghost trying to sell media, what will happen to these shows? Stadia showed Google isn’t entirely greedy when it comes to burnt customers, so perhaps the same would happen and I’d be refunded. Honestly, I wish I could just refund it all right now and divest myself from Google’s absurd handling of media sales.

I was fooled into thinking my streamable media would always remain easily accessible

It’s embarrassing to admit, I was fooled into thinking my streamable media would always remain easily accessible without Google completely mucking it up. So heed my warning, investing in digital media has proven incredibly lackluster across many services over the last few years. Such as Amazon’s handling of Comixology, literally changing my library of (very purposefully purchased) high resolution manga mostly into low res overnight. Or the Funimation merger that deleted everyone’s purchased libraries. Now I have Google forever changing where I can watch and purchase TV shows, which sure leaves me with zero confidence my purchases will last another ten years in the slightest.

With service like this, Google, your newly rumored streaming box surely sounds like something I would never buy or recommend.