Android TV:电视的未来?

一种是传统运营商机顶盒(STB), 然后是用于OTT的流媒体设备, 这两个人经常在比赛中出现. 谷歌的 Android TV platform bridges the two by aggregating broadcast content with streaming services, 这给了付费电视运营商一个夺回遥控器控制权的机会.

谷歌已经与包括AT在内的全球160多家运营商签约&T,布依格 Telecom, J:COM, and LG U+, to deliver on the Android TV platform to fight consumer flight 从付费电视服务中分离出来，而去年，付费电视服务是在65年使用.3% of U.S. 家庭，从87的高点下降.10年前的8%. 其他国家也出现了类似的趋势.

"Android TV provides operators with a full-stack operating system to help them build a complete TV experience for subscribers, bringing linear TV and streaming services to one place, 语音访问,Shobana Radhakrishnan说, 谷歌安卓电视工程总监. “运营商优先付费在他们自己的系统上.“此外，还有他们的消费者 get search, voice, content discovery, personalization, interface customization, 安卓应用存储连接，甚至智能家居控制作为标准功能. 这对运营商很有帮助 bring a full entertainment package to subscribers that goes beyond traditional paid services,Radhakrishnan说.

“一般来说，流媒体提供商会这么做 be used to having their whole user experience contained in an app, like a Netflix or YouTube. 它是某个地方的应用图标或按钮远程控制，一旦用户输入，用户体验就开始了. 付费电视运营商是不是更习惯整个设备体验(被)打上品牌和(被)关注他们的服务，”Vewd首席产品官萨沙•普赖斯特表示. Some operators completely design the user experience and have it branded the exact way they prefer, 就像在&T和TV Now服务.

嘿，谷歌，这对消费者有什么影响? 第一步是把它做成插头和尽可能多玩. New pay-TV customers can often get up and running without human interaction if the STB can automatically connect online 到家庭路由器. 查看器输入凭据信息，根据服务的不同，可以如果提供商要求，个性化体验欲知更多详情.

"We believe operators know their subscribers best and are therefore best-suited to build the right TV service for them. The key element was giving operators the flexibility to build a custom launcher and replace the Google standard launcher, thus owning the user experience while still offering all the capabilities of the platform,拉达克里希南说.

机顶盒智能化

旧的有线设备根本无法处理所有的功能，今天的多任务 modern customer seeks, such as app use; DVR, live, and catch-up viewing; higher-resolution delivery; and smarter personalized programming. “很多(运营商)都试图这样做 a legacy STB, but the system was not really application-oriented by design," says Hervé Creff, Broadpeak的业务发展总监.

One big plus is that development for the Android TV platform is done via web technologies 而不是平台特定的开发语言. “他们正在利用一种技术的首席执行官托马斯•克里斯滕森(Thomas 克里斯坦森)表示 Nordija. "Our user interface [UI] does not exist on the set-top box until it's turned on and pointed towards our portal, 在运营商自己的网络或在云端. 然后下载整个用户体验并以经典的web HTML格式交付.

Nordija

因为Android TV使用HTML, 您不需要将完整的用户界面加载到设备上, 这意味着它可以在各种设备的可用内存中工作, 根据Nordija的Thomas 克里斯坦森的说法, 这里展示的是谁的Android TV实现.

“使用HTML的关键在于它是动态的，所以您不需要将完整的UI加载到设备上，只需加载所需的部分即可. 对于像EPG(电子编程指南)这样的东西，您不需要必须下载整整7天的 600个频道的数据，”克里斯坦森说. This means that Android TV can work on the memory available on a wide range of devices.

“这是一个软件层，所以它有很多优势能够被部署在许多其他领域，甚至像这样的事情该公司总裁汤姆·谢弗(Tom Schaeffer)表示 Float Left Interactive首席执行官. “它可以访问谷歌的服务，所以当你成为其中一员安卓电视，你可以利用各种各样的服务."

Search is one service that's crucial to getting viewers to watch more, responding to 用户通过文本或语音输入，并具有能够设置优先的业务规则. 例如，集成的谷歌助手语音控件可以返回的搜索结果是为华纳传媒的内容量身定制. 一个provi-der 就像在&T could highlight its own featured content and streaming apps within the programming guide, as well as other third-party apps that either came with the offering or were installed by viewers.

安卓电视语音控制

像AT这样的供应商&T can customize Google Assistant’s voice control to highlight their own featured content and apps within the programming guide.

从这里开始

“我们实际上可以做的另一件事是提供差异化的用户体验. Operators can do a 多品牌 approach where they're going to have a different user interface for premium customers and a sub-brand focusing more on skinny bundles and a discounted “包裹，”克里斯滕森说. 安卓电视是一个多品牌, 多租户平台，降低开发成本, providing standardization to make it simpler to develop and deliver versions of services because it's all running off the same back end.

"Another critical component of staying relevant and becoming more successful is the ability to adjust the user experience continuously," 克里斯腾森说. “我们可以做这种A/B测试，并推出一个新的用户界面 subset of your users—like all the employees of the telco could try it out before you let it go in the wild.

“测试环境和生产环境通常不一样. 这是一个很难模拟的负荷因素. Typically, a tech environment has an ability to perform a load test for 50,000 concurrent users. If the production environment is 2 million, you don't really know how it's going to react," says 克里斯坦森. “最重要的是，如果你想要逐步推出并监控它的进展情况, 这就是你想要使用细分客户的想法的地方. 这些缓慢 rollouts with monitoring incoming data can test out how someone might respond to a different user experience, 可变AD负载, EPG的替代版本, 或者访问不同的内容. 你必须阅读你的数据 getting back on how it's being used by the different segments, and then try out new stuff." 这个“新东西”可以是个性化的用户经验，或者它可能是提供者创建的合作为观众提供优质服务.

将本机

OTT service XUMO has benefited from being a preinstalled app in Android TV environments, 安东尼·莱瑟说, 公司副总裁伙伴关系和编程. “观众 can simply turn the TV on and start streaming without having to download anything," he says, adding that viewers can find XUMO's channels in the TV's program guide as well as in the XUMO app. 可以用最少的努力找到XUMO内容这一事实意味着 the company didn't have to develop the extensive marketing campaign that would be required to convince consumers to download an app. (XUMO's app is available for download in the Android TV channel store, but Layser says 它只占很小的比例服务的总体使用情况.) "It's so critical to have good real estate within these environments to 有一些有保证的营销或有保证的位置，”莱泽说.

截至2019年圣诞节，美国有4500万台电视 the U.S. 包括XUMO本地集成. “每月有近1100万户家庭活跃用户，”Layser说. 这个数字意味着a 略低于25% 住户被转化为月活跃用户.

搜索之争

It's crucial that streaming services make the right metadata available to the operator. "[U]niversal search across all sources available to the consumer is always the holy grail," 普鲁特说. “通用搜索并不是100%通用的. 仍然有服务机构不想要参与宇宙搜索.“有一直以来都是关于谁拥有 consumer and gets access to metadata—some content providers want viewers to go into their 而谷歌更希望消费者使用它的搜索引擎.

"[Google] didn't do the integration at the application level, but at the content level," Prüter says. “他们使用深度链接. 当您通过操作员的应用程序导航时, 所有的内容, 包括通过流媒体传输的内容应用程序，可在单个EPG中使用或导航."

这个内容快捷方式既吸引人又对客户来说非常高效. 当你完成后，观众将回到UI的引导下 “接线员，”克雷夫说. "It would be completely clear that something was provided by Netflix, for example. 如果有相同的内容由于由几个提供者提供，所有这些都将出现. 用户可以选择."

收费电视营办商资料收集101

很难产生一个随机的观众配置文件服务提供商需要一个基础来以此来帮助确定观众是否喜欢新闻，动作惊悚片、纪录片或儿童内容. "We definitely want to create incentives for people to register for free, store that 信息, 并尝试以此建立个人档案，”谢弗说. 对于一些运营商来说，建立这种关系是一种全新的体验. "They didn't have that opportunity to have that relationship with their users when they were being delivered by 传统的有线电视运营商，”谢弗说.

问任何一个流媒体提供商，他们都会说捕获和使用正确的分析可以提供了很多优势，但这是这是付费电视世界的新途径. 订阅 video-on-demand (SVOD) service providers that have been going direct to consumers have acquired their own viewing data, 基于人们的看法, 要多久?, when, 还有其他细节.

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