Google TV hopes to see 'welcome improvements' with Netflix
Google TV hopes to bring welcome improvement with Netflix app
The director of product management for the the TV provider - which is operated by Android and allows users to access apps Disney+, YouTube and Amazon Prime via its Chromecast plug-in device - said hopes to see a "welcome improvement" with Netflix and "other partners" after the streaming giant pulled its integration with Google TV shortly after the platform debuted on the Chromecast across Android devices.
Director Nick Caruso told Protocol: "I hope we’ll see some welcome improvements and innovations in the coming months with not just Netflix, but with many partners. You can’t force anyone’s hand, but the hope is that as we provide features for our users [and] partners, that they all see value, and then it’s a flywheel. Not everything at the app level necessarily should be brought to the system, whereas everything at the system level shouldn't necessarily be an app-level feature"
The Google boss - who himself formerly worked for Netflix as an executive - also went on to reveal Google's plans for their TV platform over the coming year, noting that fitness is "a big area of exploration" over the coming year, as well as smart home capabilities, similar to Amazon's Alexa which can control home appliances such as lights and locks.
Caruso added: "Fitness is [a] big area of exploration. This could include both an integration of Google’s own services and devices (think Google Fit, Fitbit) as well as third-party services. All of those areas are things that we're looking at, that we're exploring, and hopefully bringing out at some point later this year."