Google TV is expanding its homescreen integration with another service this week. Rolling out starting today, the free live TV service Pluto TV is adding integration with the “Live” tab on Google TV.
Pluto TV offers over 300 free live TV channels and has supported Google TV and Android TV as an app for some time now, even going as far as powering a live experience on Verizon’s Stream TV for some time. Now, Pluto TV is expanding to better support the newer platform.
Google TV users will see Pluto TV as an option on Google TV’s homescreen under the “Live” tab as well as providing recommendations for content on the “For You” tab. The “Live” tab on Google TV originally only worked with YouTube TV, but it has since expanded to Philo and Sling TV. Pluto is the first free service to support the feature.
Adding to this announcement, Google teases that it will be adding “more ways” to watch free TV on Google TV in 2022. We’re taking that as a hint towards Google TV offering its own native free/ad-supported content, as was reported earlier this year.
That report originally speculated that the feature could arrive in Fall 2021, but added that it could arrive in 2022 “in line with partners.”