Android TV gets new apps from Showtime, HBO, CBS, WWE, UFC, and Disney
Google today announced a slew of new content providers for its Android TV, including Showtime, HBO Now, CBS All Access, EPIX, WWE, UFC, and Disney Movies Anywhere. — “So, as the nights get longer and colder …
Context & Ripple Effects
Android TV's catalog push is the second act of a busy 2015 for Google's living-room platform: three months earlier it crossed 600 apps and reworked its store to ease discovery, and in July HBO broke its Apple exclusivity, bringing HBO Now to Android phones and Amazon Fire. Today's batch — Showtime, HBO Now, CBS All Access, EPIX, WWE, UFC, Disney Movies Anywhere — closes the gap where it counts most: the television itself.
The move also lands mid-race with Amazon, whose Fire TV has been signing its own slate of network apps; the two platforms are now visibly trading catalog blows week to week.
First-order effects
- Cord-cutting subscribers of HBO Now, Showtime, and CBS All Access can finally watch those services on an Android TV set-top or television, no phone-casting workaround required.
- Premium networks that once anchored one platform's exclusivity window are now shipping on Google's hardware within months of leaving Apple's — HBO being the clearest case.
Second-order effects
- Amazon's answer comes into view weeks later when Fire TV counters with NBC, Fox Now, Food Network, and GoPro apps, confirming that neither platform can let the other hold a marquee name for long.
- For WWE and UFC, direct-to-consumer apps on both major TV platforms shift their distribution away from pay-TV middlemen toward subscriptions they control and price themselves.
Third-order effects
- If every platform converges on the same app catalog, differentiation migrates up the stack to store design and recommendation — the problem Google was still solving years later when it reported Android TV running on 140+ pay-TV operators worldwide and promised a redesigned Play Store.
- The endgame visible from here is aggregation: once every service is everywhere, platforms like Google stop competing on exclusives entirely and start bundling — the path that led to Google TV's 800-plus free channels in 2023.
The trend: TV platforms are entering an era where app catalogs converge to near-identical lineups across devices, pushing competition from exclusive content toward discovery, bundling, and operator partnerships.