What if Google TV helped you bounce between streaming services?

Ben Schoon | Sep 22 2024 - 9:00 am PT

The idea of Google TV when it launched four years ago was to make it easier to find content across a sea of streaming services, but as the next chapter in Google TV begins, what if the platform evolved to help you just switch back and forth between services?

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Streaming has gotten expensive.

For many, signing up for two or three subscriptions can cost as much as some cable packages, all while still not giving you access to all of the content you actually want. As a result, we’re seeing more and more bundles.

But, in reality, most people are only using a couple of these subscriptions at a time, making spending the tens of dollars each month on the ones you’re not using as much feel mostly pointless. Lately, I’ve been keeping Disney+ and Hulu active primarily, and turning Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and Netflix on for a month or two at a time. It’s a little tedious, but it saves a bunch of money.

What if that could be automated, though?

The idea of Google TV back in 2020 was to help everyone find the content they want to watch quickly and easily from a central location, and I can’t help but feel like the next logical step there is the ability to automate what services you’re actually using.

Imagine it this way. You’re adding content to your watchlist on Google TV, and a new Netflix show catches your eye. But, currently, you’re not subscribed. This hypothetical version of Google TV could spin up your account, set a timer for a couple of months, and then stop the payment when you’re done. In theory, this could leverage Google Play’s “pause” function for subscriptions, allowing Google TV to automate the task of pausing one subscription while perhaps enabling another.

This would be an incredibly useful function, but the sad reality is that it’ll likely never happen.

For one, the “pause” idea would require all of these streaming services to actually use Google Play Billing, something that’s highly unlikely as long as a 30% cut is in the picture. Beyond that, it’d also probably create some bad blood between Google TV and those services. Just look at Netflix’s reaction to Google TV even simply wanting to surface Netflix’s library outside of their app. They’d never be on board for something like this. Plus, there would probably also be a lot of friction with the money-saving bundles that exist now, like the one that bundles Disney+, Hulu, and Max.

This is all a dream, but it’s a nice one in my book. If Google ever managed to do this – and to be clear, there’s no sign this is even on the drawing table – it’d probably usher in a new era for the platform.

At least we’ve got the Google TV Streamer to look forward to this coming week!

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