At this years IBC, head of global distribution partnerships at Google TV, Suveer Kothari, has spoken at a conference about The Evolution of Connected TV Platforms, referring also to Google TVs future plans to integrate within the pay TV market. Speaking of the concern surrounding Google TV squeezing itself between platform operators and their subscribers […]
At this years IBC, head of global distribution partnerships at Google TV, Suveer Kothari, has spoken at a conference about The Evolution of Connected TV Platforms, referring also to Google TVs future plans to integrate within the pay TV market.
Speaking of the concern surrounding Google TV squeezing itself between platform operators and their subscribers with its connected TV platform, Kothari said at IBC: Our UI is very flexible and we will see different manufacturers building it differently on each device. We have just not had time to work closely with the operator industry on combined Google TV solutions but that is now changing. Our goal is to bring the Internet to the TV screen, whether that is working with Samsung or Sony or working with operator partners.
Google TV is now focusing on content, and the Google Chrome browser will be available alongside apps and Youtube. Kothari believes the apps that people have grown accustomed to using on their mobile phones will become just as popular and as necessary on the TV screen.
He added: Google Play makes it easy for developers to hit the TV, phone and tablet in the same way. You have the Chrome browser using HTML5 as an alternative and we are also trying to provide the best implementation of YouTube for the TV screen, optimised for the living room with thousands of new channels of niche content, available in HD.
Kothari went on to talk about how the company has invested much effort into content discovery, and focused on the Google TV discovery app that brings stored, on-demand and live content into one simple experience, customised for the consumer.
We bring core strengths around indexing and recommendations that we learned for the web to television and can use those to build really exciting experiences for consumers, he told the audience at the conference session, which took place at IBC, 6 September 2012.
Other key speakers at the conference, The Evolution of Connected TV Platforms, were UK-based Bill Scott, chief operating and commercial officer at Easel TV; Stephen Taylor, co-founder of Redshift Strategy in the UK; Rohan Oomen, general manager of Xbox Live EMEA and Dan Saunders, director of content services at Samsung Electronics Europe; and US-based Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo.
