Google TV, the top-layer search-and-discovery interface that Google recently added onto its Android TV OS, has generated a “2x” increase in the amount of video streaming conducted on the Android TV platform, according to Shalini Govil-Pai, VP of Android TV and Google TV.
“We’ve seen engagement rise by a lot,” she said, speaking on an afternoon Q&A session with Lightshed’s Richard Greenfield Tuesday, an event produced by Questex. "Users are spending less time searching and more time watching what they want to watch."
Google TV was introduced in October with Google’s debut of the Chromecast with Google TV HDMI streaming dongle. Govil-Pai confirmed Google’s objective for all of its third-party Android TV partners to eventually adopt Google TV, and to eventually transition its whole OS enterprise under the Google TV brand.
“But Google TV is built onto Android TV, which continues to be our operating system,” she said.
She noted that TCL, which began patterning with Google on Android TV-powered smart TVs last year, will debut a Google TV-powered set “in the next month or two.”
Govil-Pai was also asked if Google intends to more aggressively market its OS, which is still a niche software in the U.S. compared to the much larger Roku.
Google will and its smart TV OEM partners will also begin more aggressively marketing Google TV as they “lean into the brand ahead of the holidays,” she added.
