Google has reduced the budget by 10% and laid off around a quarter of all employees in the Google TV division, according to well-informed The Information.
For years, the pace of updates to Google TV has paled in comparison to the many new features added to tvOS on Apple TV.
That is unlikely to change, if we are to believe The Information, which cites internal sources.
One in four employees
The Google TV team reportedly consisted of around 300 employees, but after the round of layoffs, roughly a quarter have been let go.
This comes as a result of a 10% budget cut. The two figures suggest that managers are staying, while a large number of lower-ranked employees are leaving the Google TV division.
According to The Information, the annual budget has until now been below 500 million dollars.
The news outlet claims that Google's parent company Alphabet will instead allocate more resources to YouTube, which in the coming months will receive a major redesign on TVs that brings the service more in line with Disney+ and Netflix.
More ads, fewer features
In recent years, Google TV development has focused more on ads than on new features that benefit users.
So far, Europeans have been spared the largest ad formats, but in the US users are seeing ads that take over the entire Google TV interface, while the frequency of ads is also steadily increasing. Another focus for Google in the US and some other countries has been to roll out free ad-supported TV channels via streaming.
Google TV is used in TV models from brands such as Hisense, Philips, TCL and Sony. The operating system is also found in Google TV Streamer, Chromecast and other media players as well as many set-top boxes.
The Google TV operating system is used in both TV screens and media boxes
New features on the way
There are still a number of potentially useful features coming with Android TV 16, such as Eclipsa Audio support, a feature that allows streaming services to change video/audio settings, a new design language, and Gemini AI – although not directly tied to Android 16.
- "We continue to invest in Google TV with new user experiences, including the upcoming integration of Gemini. There are more than 270 million Android TV devices, and we remain committed to growing this ecosystem with an exciting road map ahead," a Google spokesperson told The Information.
Google TV has moved to from a 1-year to a 2-year update cycle.
- Source: The Information
