Google Play starts selling movies, TV shows (single episode or full season) and magazines today
The Android Market became Google Play to focus on how it pushes media, and now it's adding a few new options. On stage at Google I/O 2012 the company just announced it's adding support …
Context & Ripple Effects
The move completes an arc that started in March 2012, when CNET reported Google was weighing movie sales on the newly renamed store. Google had already retired the Android Market brand in favor of Google Play specifically to foreground media rather than apps, so today's launch of movies, TV episodes and seasons, and magazines is the inventory catching up to the rebrand.
Announced on stage at Google I/O 2012, the expansion puts a direct iTunes-style storefront inside every Android device, and the pickup across The Verge, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Inside Mobile Apps the same day signals how closely the Apple-versus-Android media-retail contest is being watched.
First-order effects
- Android users can now buy single episodes, full seasons, movies, and magazine issues directly in Google Play, closing the most visible content gap versus Apple's store on Google's own devices.
- Studios and magazine publishers gain a new storefront whose reach is tied to the Android installed base, giving them another negotiating counterweight to iTunes and Amazon.
Second-order effects
- Apple and Amazon now face pressure to defend their video and newsstand pricing and exclusives on Android turf, where Google controls both the operating system and the default checkout.
- Google's own hardware ambitions get a content backbone: a Play media catalog is the prerequisite for any living-room or tablet play to be more than a screen without a store.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mobile app marketplaces consolidate into full media retailers, with whoever owns the OS-level billing relationship capturing the customer across apps, video, and print — a structural shift in who intermediates digital media.
The trend: Operating-system owners are turning their app stores into full media retail platforms, using default placement and one-tap billing to challenge iTunes and Amazon on their own ground.