Google TV adding 800 FAST channels to guide (Tubi, Haystack, Plex, others)

[meStevo]

Google TV expands its free streaming lineup to over 800 live TV channels including Tubi, Plex, Haystack and more

Google TV, the company’s smart TV operating system that powers Chromecast devices and various TVs, is today getting a significant update aimed at expanding access to free, streaming TV. The company announced this morning Google TV will now integrate access to free streaming channels like Tubi...

techcrunch.com

Google TV, the company’s smart TV operating system that powers Chromecast devices and various TVs, is today getting a significant update aimed at expanding access to free, streaming TV. The company announced this morning Google TV will now integrate access to free streaming channels like Tubi, Plex, and Haystack News directly in its redesigned Live tab, alongside its existing lineup of channels from free streamer Pluto TV. In this tab, it’s also organizing its own set of now over 800 free live TV channels, including news channels from NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX, and others featuring shows like “Westworld,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “The Walking Dead.”​

 

[meStevo]

New live guide is pretty great. Kind of comical that there are so many channels that it takes 20 seconds to scroll through them, even as it goes through dozens of channels per second.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hard to get through them... even harder to easily get to the channels you like. They need to add channel numbers and get remotes with numbers on them to make it easier to get to what you want to watch.

 

[meStevo]

Seems easy enough to add channels to favorites and sort by them, if I was interested in anything more than just telling it to tune to a specific channel or it wasn't already just DVRing anything of interest. Surfacing those sorting controls is brilliant.

I actually now sort my guide by most watched, just now naturally surfaces the most popular channels towards the top.

But overall yeah, it's hilarious seeing so many channels in one guide, lol.

These changes probably help mom take an incremental step towards moving on from DirecTV, she likes to browse and has a handful of favorites, and the responsiveness of this UI on the Chromecast is improved enough now that I think this will move the needle a bit.

 

[navychop]

I think the industry is pushing us to voice control. Eventually, no remote will be needed at all.