Google made a surprise announcement today, unveiling its take on television: Google TV.
In the blog post announcing the release, Google acknowledged the myriad of options people have to watch TV. From movies, to live TV to streaming and DVR content, the supply of content is virtually limitless. Unfortunately, the plethora of services can make it difficult to find content. In addition, it can be an annoyance switching back and forth between a bunch of different services.
Google is looking to address these issues, with a service that pulls content from a variety of sources and serves as the central hub from which to watch it. The new service will be heavily integrated with Google Assistant, providing the ability to interact via voice.
“The new Google TV experience brings together movies, shows, live TV and more from across your apps and subscriptions and organizes them just for you,” writes Shalini Govilpai, Senior Director, Google TV. “To build this, we studied the different ways people discover media—from searching for a specific title to browsing by genre—and created an experience that helps you find what to watch. We also made improvements to Google’s Knowledge Graph, which is part of how we better understand and organize your media into topics and genres, from movies about space travel to reality shows about cooking. You’ll also see titles that are trending on Google Search, so you can always find something timely and relevant.”
The new Chromecast with Google TV is available for $49.99 and comes with a remote and 4K support. The Google TV app will begin rolling out to Android devices in the US today, and will start showing up on Sony televisions and other Android TV OS-powered devices starting next year.