When Play Movies and TV service launched, Google chose HE-AAC as the official audio codec instead of Dolby Digital Plus, I remember many users complaint about this decision, so they end up supporting Dolby Digital Plus after all though Dolby Atmos metadata is still not supported. HE-AAC is still used as an optional codec.
YouTube has never supported Dolby Audio, instead, Google chose AAC-LC as the audio codec for multichannel audio, however, this codec is transcoded to Dolby Digital by some Smart TVs when using the HDMI-ARC port or the SPDIF port; unfortunately, external boxes don't perform this transcoding so they must be connected to a multichannel AV receiver in order to get multichannel PCM. Currently, multichannel audio on YouTube seems to be capped or limited to an unknown number of devices, it was supported on web browsers, game consoles but they just downmix the audio to stereo. The only Android TV box that still seems to be supporting this is the Nvidia Shield. Dolby Digital patents already expired according to its Wikipedia page: "In Dolby's 2005 original and amended S-1 filings with the SEC, Dolby acknowledged that "Patents relating to our Dolby Digital technologies expire between 2008 and 2017. The last patent covering AC-3 expired March 20, 2017, so it is now generally free to use". That means Google can start using Dolby Digital on YouTube because it's now free.
Music streaming services have started to support lossless Hi-Fi audio, Tidal, Deezer, Spotify and Amazon Music already offer that audio tier, with Tidal and Amazon Music supporting Dolby Atmos Music. Now Apple just seems to be readying the service to also support HiFi audio, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Audio.
Apple Music may soon feature support for lossless HiFi audio, Dolby Audio
Google Play Music never offered a HiFi audio tier while YouTube Music still offers a single lossy AAC tier. Even music uploaded to the service in lossless formats such as FLAC, are converted to AAC afterwards.
Will Google follow suit?
I know part of the reason relies on licencing costs but is that an impediment for Google?
Share your thoughts.
I think the only Dolby product that doesn't have an open/free alternative is Atmos. That's it.
Why pay extra for a closed format when there are open formats available for free? Dolby Vision? There is HDR10+ Dolby Audio? Choose one of the many free formats.