Kai-Christian Borchers, managing director of German multiscreen software solutions provider 3 Screen Solutions (3SS), has warned platform operators that adopting Android TV-based set-top-boxes, which is a growing trend, may come with long term risk for industry players.
An increasing number of OTT and video providers are opting for Android TV as this makes the Google Play store with its many apps including Netflix available to their customers, Borchers told Broadband TV News. Less development effort is also necessary with Android boxes compared with many market alternatives.
Since the move from Marshmallow to Nougat, Android TV contains many features platform operators require, said Borchers, but he added there is one thing to keep in mind when choosing Android TV, and is that Google may have its own competitive longer term strategy.
The amount of data collected from Android TV-based systems, for example regarding popularity of content and viewer behaviour, could be used by Google to enter any given market with rival services, for example an OTT platform carrying TV channels, live sports or video-on-demand content.
Google’s streaming services could also have easy access to consumer households through the Android TV-based reception devices, competing with the services offered by the local platform operator, explains Borchers.
With 3Ready, 3SS offers platform operators an in-house developed white-label multiscreen solution for linear and non-linear streaming services. All major operating systems such as Android, iOS, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV are covered through natively built apps.
The company’s customers include Vodafone Kabel Deutschland, Swisscom, ProSiebenSat.1, maxdome, SES and Red Bull.
