Google TV now has over 1,100 free channels available on the homescreen

1 week ago 3

Following its launch in early 2023, Google TV has rapidly been expanding its catalog of free channels available through the homescreen, and it now offers over 1,100.

Through the “Live” tab on the Google TV homescreen, users have been able to access a collection of live streaming content via select services. In April 2023, Google launched free channels that integrated with “Live.” All of these channels are ad-supported.

There’s a growing list of channels within Google’s own service, Freeplay, which now contains roughly 160 total channels, around double what it offered at launch.

Here are all of the 150+ free channels available on Google TV Freeplay

Beyond that, though, Google’s partners in Pluto TV, Plex, HayStack News, and Tubi provide access to hundreds more channels. Initially, Google said that over 800 channels would be available, a number that’s grown considerably in the time since.

By our count, Google TV now offers access to over 1,000 free channels on the homescreen. Specifically, there are 1,134 channels when looking at Freeplay, Pluto, Plex, HayStack, and Tubi combined. There may be a few duplicates in there, but it still represents hundreds of new additions over the past 18 months or so. We captured the updated number by looking at the “Live” tab and its various category counts. Notably, Google still only mentions having “800+” free channels via its website.

A huge number of the new additions come from international, Spanish language, and local channels that are provided by mainly Pluto, Plex, and HayStack.

For any channels that are not directly built into Google TV Freeplay, an app download is required to start viewing, but the full guide is visible through the “Live” tab.

Google continues to build out free channel functionality on Google TV, with a new Freeplay app set to re-release soon. However, all of this remains available only in the United States despite many of the available channels originating in other parts of the globe.

Do you use any of Google TV’s free channels? Let us know in the comments below.