Amazon and Google Make Peace Over Smart TV Competition

An anonymous reader shares a report: Last week, the Competition Commission of India published a damning report, alleging that Google was preventing major TV manufacturers from adopting Amazon's Fire TV operating system. This Thursday, Amazon announced that TCL, one of the manufacturers at the center of the dispute, is releasing two TV sets running its Fire TV software in Europe this fall. The unveiling of the two TV models is the direct result of a deal Google and Amazon struck in recent months, Protocol has learned from a source close to one of the parties involved in the agreement. As a result of that deal, Amazon has been able to work with a number of consumer electronics companies -- including not only TCL, but also Xiaomi and Hisense -- to vastly expand the number of available smart TVs running Fire TV OS. All of these companies were previously barred from doing so under licensing terms imposed by Google.

Re:

[sabbede]

For the most part I'd say they gather marketing data rather than intelligence, but I can't help but be suspicious of the three Chinese brands listed.

Let me guess...

[nuckfuts]

The agreement has something to do with Google getting to data-mine the hell out of your TV usage.

When elephants fight ...

[PPH]

... it's the grass that suffers. We are that grass.

I have the feeling that the grass will suffer far more when they begin making love.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Plus, all your bin liners go missing.

Thug on thug violence

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Fuck them both.

let's be honest here

[cawdor]

This is not a fight over which TV runs which OS. This is a fight over who gets to mine your information and sell it to advertisers. And they probably agreed to share the data.

Howabout NO operating system.

[nosfucious]

Just enough that I can choose input from any number of HDMI ports.

My personal preference is around 6. Others may need more, or less. No tuner, no OS, no memory and no network required. The TV should not just be "not smart", it should be dumb as dog shite.

Re:

[Canberra1]

Where are the MOD's or autopatching scripts that can disable the green-house gas generated by unwanted cycles. I demand the right to set a 'minimum' setting. Failing that how about a script to feed false randomized garbage to these electronic peeping-toms.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

Why is this an issue? [samsung.com]

I thought Android was FOSS

[Sloppy]

People used to say that though Android was FOSS, Google Play Services was proprietary, but this reads as though Android itself must be proprietary now.

Re:

[psycho12345]

This is Android TV, which is a variant of Android that has a different set of Google Play Services and apps, as well as some proprietary sdk stuff meant for TV's/STB setups.