With 270 million devices, Google claims the streaming platform throne

Google has anointed itself the winner of the streaming platform wars: The company revealed this week that there are now 270 million monthly active Google TV and Android TV devices in the world. “I’m really, really proud that we are the number one streaming platform now,” Google TV VP & GM Shalini Govil-Pai told me during an interview a few days ago. 

A success story ten years in the making. Google launched Android TV a decade ago, and revamped its streaming platform efforts under the Google TV banner in 2020. Since then, the company has launched two streaming dongles, which it is now phasing out in favor of the new Google TV Streamer – a $100 streaming box with more horsepower and added smart home capabilities that went on sale this week. “The first-party product we put out is always about the future, [about] where we think TV is headed,” Govil-Pai said.

In addition to launching the new device this week, Google is also unveiling a few updates to the Google TV platform:

• The company is rebranding its free live “FAST” channels as Google TV Freeplay, which now includes 150 Google-operated channels that can be accessed without opening any third-part app.

• Govil-Pai told me that these kinds of channels, which feel more like traditional television than on-demand streaming, have gotten a lot of traction on the platform. “[There is] huge demand for appointment-based viewing,” she said. “We thought that that was gone, but it's still very, very strong.”

• Google TV is also getting a new sports page to highlight games and other events across platforms.

How many TV OSes does the world need? Google’s smart TV platform may be the market leader when it comes to monthly active devices, but it is still facing strong competition on all fronts: Amazon announced 18 months ago that it had sold more than 200 million Fire TV devices, and Roku recently told investors that it is now 83.6 million streaming households every month. 

(A quick note on apples vs. oranges: A streaming household may own more than one smart TV or streaming dongle, and a device sold years ago may have stopped working since.)

In addition, there’s a growing number of companies betting on their own smart TV platform. Samsung, LG, Vizio, Xumo, TiVo, Titan OS, Whale TV: There’s almost too many TV operating systems available to count, and that doesn’t even include The Trade Desk’s still-unannounced smart TV operating system that will power an upcoming streaming box made by Sonos.

When I asked Govil-Pai about Google’s competition in the smart TV platform space, she acknowledged that some of the bigger players had staying power, adding that she had been “very impressed” in particular by Roku’s ability to sustain its business model.

Govil-Pai sounded less certain about the chances of some of the newcomers emerging in the space. “I am surprised at how many OSes are springing out of the woodworks every day,” she said, adding that she wasn’t sure building a smart TV operating system was the right way to go for The Trade Desk. 

“Building an OS platform is one [thing], but it is another to scale it,” she said. “It’s very, very hard. And I’ve been through it for the last six years.”

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Image courtesy of Google.