Freeplay quietly turned into something else this week. It launched as a channel grid, the free live stuff baked into Google TV sets and the Walmart Onn boxes, and Google has now dropped a library of more than 10,000 free movies and shows into it, along with another 300 or so live channels.
The on demand part changes how you use it. No app to install, no sign up, no account. It sits in the Live tab and in your recommendations, and that second one is the catch. This content is going to start appearing in rows next to the services you actually pay for, and nothing in the interface is going to make that distinction obvious at a glance.
A24 and Lionsgate get named as studios, and I would keep expectations low there. Free tiers get the deep catalogue, not last year's releases. The new live channels are the usual assortment, Bloomberg TV+, a Yahoo sports feed, a Martha Stewart channel, a Love Island one, which tells you exactly which competitors this is aimed at. Tubi and Pluto have run free VOD for years and both have better search than anything on Google TV.
Where Freeplay does win is friction. Tubi is an app you have to open and sign into eventually. This is just there when you press home. For a spare room set or a second TV that nobody is going to log into, that is the entire argument.
It needs current firmware. Has anyone on an older Onn box actually seen the on demand rows appear, or is this staged like everything else Google ships?
The on demand part changes how you use it. No app to install, no sign up, no account. It sits in the Live tab and in your recommendations, and that second one is the catch. This content is going to start appearing in rows next to the services you actually pay for, and nothing in the interface is going to make that distinction obvious at a glance.
A24 and Lionsgate get named as studios, and I would keep expectations low there. Free tiers get the deep catalogue, not last year's releases. The new live channels are the usual assortment, Bloomberg TV+, a Yahoo sports feed, a Martha Stewart channel, a Love Island one, which tells you exactly which competitors this is aimed at. Tubi and Pluto have run free VOD for years and both have better search than anything on Google TV.
Where Freeplay does win is friction. Tubi is an app you have to open and sign into eventually. This is just there when you press home. For a spare room set or a second TV that nobody is going to log into, that is the entire argument.
It needs current firmware. Has anyone on an older Onn box actually seen the on demand rows appear, or is this staged like everything else Google ships?
