Google revamps live TV guide to discover 800 free channels
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Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is working to revamp the live TV experience in its Google TV offering, aggregating more than 800 free channels across a number of providers.
That's a bid to address a growing problem for TV viewers: As subscription offerings proliferate, so do a wide variety of free online TV options -- but the program descriptions are heavily scattered across the landscape.
Google's new live experience looks to offer a single TV guide in its live tab to allow for browsing programs across those 800-plus channels, including not only the existing lineup on Pluto TV (PARA) (PARAA) and news channels from NBC (CMCSA), ABC (DIS), CBS (PARA) (PARAA) and Fox (FOX) (FOXA), but also Tubi (FOX) (FOXA), Plex, and Haystack News, among many others from around the world.
The product is available to everyone, but those with premium live TV subscriptions to YouTube TV or Sling TV (DISH), or over-the-air channels, will be able to see those in the live tab as well.
It's rolling out on all Google TV devices in the U.S., including Chromecast with Google TV and televisions with Google TV built in (from the likes of Sony, TCL, Hisense and Philips) and will make its way to certain Android TV devices later in the year.