At CES 2016, Google has announced a slew of new Android TV and Google Cast partners. Bang & Olufsen, TCL, Hisense and other TV companies will join team Android TV in 2016.
Android TV in more TVs
When Google announced its plans to create a TV operating system in 2014, it partnered with Sony, Philips, and Sharp. More partners are now coming on board.
Bang & Olufsen, TCL, Hisense, Arcelik (Grundig and others), Vestel, and RCA have been confirmed as Android TV partners. Bang & Olufsen's sub-brand, B&O Play, will also start using Google Cast in its speaker products later this year.
Manufacturers are not allowed to change the Android TV user interface so it will look like this for everyone involved.
The most notable additions are Chinese TCL and Hisense that are mainstream TV manufacturers as well as Bang & Olufsen, which is a high-end luxury brand. Bang & Olufsen’s global PR Manager, Tina Banzhaf, confirmed to us that Bang & Olufsen has signed on as an Android TV partner but that it is too early to go into specifics.
We scoured the CES show floors to get a glimpse of the new Android TVs but it appears that only RCA had one on display. TCL tells us to expect their first Android TVs by Q3 2016, which coincides with the IFA 2016 show in Berlin. The press representatives at Hisense did not offer any time frame.
