Google has reportedly cut Google TV’s budget by a significant margin. This comes as the company is preparing to bring Google Gemini to the platform later this year, as well as make a bigger push for improvements to YouTube.
According to an exclusive report by The Information, Google has gone ahead and cut Google TV’s budget by 10%. This information comes from sources familiar with the team and ongoing projects. That budget cut also comes with layoffs within the Google TV division.
As for how many people that affects, the numbers is unknown. The source reports that the team consisted of around 300 employees, and the number has seemingly dropped by around a quarter.
The overall budget had been set at somewhere under $500 million, and a 10% cut will likely significantly affect the team’s ability to operate. Google TV makes up a good portion of TV platforms, with brands like Hisense and TCL pushing the OS. Of course, Google TV also serves as the primary OS for Google’s TV Streamer.
This budget reduction comes as Google is planning on bringing some massive updates to Google TV. The company plans on integrating Google Gemini further into everyday devices, and Google sees the TV as the centerpiece for most homes.
The change aims to modernize TV interaction and make it just as easy to get relevant information from your Google TV devices as from your phone. Gemini’s natural language model plays a massive part in that and allows for more intuitive use cases, rather than simple suggestions that may not hit.
The company’s shifting focus to YouTube may have something to do with the budget slash. It’s been reported that Google is looking to make YouTube look more like a streaming service than the video hosting website we’ve been familiar with for the past 20 years.
The redesign would focus on creating an environment that emulates Disney+ or Netflix, with ties to paid shows and content that would, in the long run, make Google more profitable. That change is set to come in the “coming months.”
It’s unclear what this budget cut seems to mean for users. The original report seems to indicate that the company is looking to continue hiring people in other regions, though there is no information on further projects.
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