Google TV owners are getting access to a deluge of free content, with more than 10,000 new video-on-demand titles being added to the Google TV Freeplay service this week.
It’s a monster-sized addition to Google TV’s already impressive select of free and ad-supported TV or FAST services, and the best part of this announcement is that viewers won’t need to sign up or subscribe to anything. The content has just been dropped right into Google TV Freeplay and can be accessed right now at the click of a remote.
It’s really good news for a lot of TV owners, for the Google TV platform has been widely adopted by Sony, Hisense, TCL and other major brands. Given the massive amount of new content available, Google hasn’t gone to the trouble of providing us with a full list of all the new titles it’s making available, and it’s not something that the author of this post wouldn’t want to type out, but it did mention a few of the most enticing offerings. Through its partnerships with the entertainment studios Lionsgate and A24, viewers will be able to see quite a few movies from both, including Oscar-winning titles such as Lady Bird from 2019 and the 2009 hit Seventeen Again.
The announcement underlines Google’s ambitions to establish itself as the king of FAST streaming and it’s easy to understand why. The more free content it has, and the better the quality of that content is, the more likely people are going to be to want to purchase a television that runs the Google TV platform - helping the company to establish its dominance and grow its revenue.
Google TV Freeplay has been around for a while, but until this week it lacked any video-on-demand content. It carries some decent, and certainly watchable TV channels too, but the problem with live TV is that it’s rather outdated in the streaming age. Few things are more annoying than getting home late, only to realise that the movie you wanted to watch is already half way done.
With on-demand titles, that’s no longer a problem. Users get the flexibility to tune in whenever they want, and that makes Google TV Freeplay more of a rival to paid streamers, as opposed to other FAST services like the Roku TV Channel, Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels. More similar to the likes of Pluto and Tubi, in fact.
For now, Pluto and Tubi are still regarded as the best there is in terms of free video streaming, but their libraries are chock-a-block with much older and lower-budget titles, which may not have the same appeal as Google’s focus on newer content.
Besides the new on-demand films, Google TV is also getting access to hundreds of new TV channels. Google TV Freeplay now lists more than 300 broadcasters that span almost every genre, from news, sports and true crime to reality TV, documentaries and cartoons. Some of the most notable include World of Love Island, Bloomberg TV+, Yahoo! Sports Network and The Martha Stewart Channel.
Google isn't the only FAST service looking to expand, though. Roku recently announced the addition of four new channels to its own FAST TV offering, including something totally unique that none of its rivals yet have -- a continuous stream of AI-generated content for AI enthusiasts and those with more sadistic tendencies who feel the need to drown themselves in never-ending slop. Intriguing, to say the least.
