While “Google TV” has a clear future as seen with the upcoming “Streamer,” it is losing the ability to buy television shows on all platforms and form factors.
Google announced yesterday that “you will no longer be able to purchase TV episodes and seasons from Google TV on Google TV devices, Android TV devices, and the Google TV Mobile app.” This removal is rolling out “over the next few weeks.”
Movies are not mentioned, so the ability to purchase films with Google TV should remain. (We’ve reached out to Google for confirmation.)
The intended replacement is purchasing “TV shows from YouTube depending on country availability,” which last revamped the browsing experience in early 2022. This is a notable expansion of what the YouTube app is for on Android/Google TV.
There will be no changes to accessing “previously purchased movies and TV shows (including active rentals and entire TV seasons, regardless of where the purchase was made).” They will remain available in “Google TV devices, Android TV devices, the Google TV mobile app for Android and the iOS app, and YouTube.”
However, there is a notable shift today that means your Google TV and YouTube purchase libraries will no longer remain synced. Again, there are no announced changes to movies.
…moving forward, any TV shows purchased on YouTube after today will only be accessible through the YouTube app or on YouTube.
This move follows Google spending last year replacing the Play Movies & TV app on smart televisions with the “Shop” tab.
Again, the company is clearly committed to the “Google TV” brand if it’s willing to replace the “Chromecast” as its flagship streaming device, but not being able to buy shows adds unnecessary asterisks to the end user watching experience. This change impacting the Google TV Android app — with the iOS client never supporting purchases — is also unexpected. (That said, most people probably just use it for the TV Remote, which has a convenient Quick Settings Tile and is faster to access than the equivalent functionality in the Google Home app.)
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