Google has downsized its business unit that is focused on developing its open-source connected television (CTV) platform Android TV and its associated user interface Google TV, according to a report published this week.
On Monday, tech publication The Information said around 25 percent of the team’s 300 employees were expected to be laid off as Google reduced its budget for Android TV and Google TV by 10 percent.
Google is expected to continue developing Android TV and Google TV, and supporting devices that are powered by Android TV, albeit with a smaller team on the project.
News of the impending layoffs comes about three months after Google announced it would stop selling two of its Android TV dongles in favor of the Google TV Streamer, a $100 home hub that pairs the tech giant’s streaming TV platform with smart home features.
Google’s streaming TV share in the United States is dwarfed by rivals Roku and Amazon, which dominate the market with low-cost, feature-filled devices running Roku OS and Fire TV OS respectively. (Fire TV OS is a variant of Android, with Amazon’s own user interface and services layered on top.)
Overseas, the situation is much different, with Android TV ranking first or second among streaming TV platforms in key markets like Europe, Asia and Latin America. In some countries, Google competes directly with Amazon; in others, Google is the dominant player in a sea of smaller operating systems like Xperi’s TiVo OS, Whale OS, VIDAA OS and Titan OS.
More than 270 million devices around the world are powered by Android TV, a Google spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.
“We continue to invest in Google TV with new user experiences including the upcoming integration of Gemini,” the spokesperson affirmed, adding that Google “[remains] committed to growing this ecosystem with an exciting road map ahead.”
In addition to supporting Andorid TV devices, Google will continue to develop services that work within its Google TV ecosystem and competing ones. That includes YouTube, the video platform juggernaut that has dominated American living rooms over the past two years and which earned Google nearly $9 billion in advertising revenue during the company’s most-recent financial quarter.
Google also continues to build out its free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) app, called Google TV Freeplay, which is offered on most modern Android TV devices and smart TVs in the United States. More than 100 channels are offered through the app, with content streams powered by Comcast and Charter’s joint venture Xumo.
