Connected TV specialist Vewd has hired one of Google’s key Android TV staffers: Sascha Prueter, who previously was head of product for Google’s Android TV platform, is becoming Vewd’s new Chief Product Officer, the company announced Tuesday.
Vewd has developed both an app store for smart TV apps as well as a full-blown smart TV operating system. More recently, the company announced a kind of customization of Android TV that is targeted towards operators and others wanting to use Android for their hardware, but not solely rely on Android TV’s user interface and app store.
Prueter will now aim to further strengthen Vewd’s operator business as part of his new role at the company, said the company’s CEO Aneesh Rajaram Tuesday.
“Sascha understands how to design compelling OTT products and has deep commercial insight relevant to global pay TV operators and leading OEMs. His experience creating world-class solutions aligns well with Vewd’s strategic product roadmap.”
At Google, Prueter had been working on Android TV since 2013. In that time, Android TV has become a bit of a dark horse for the company. Absent of popular retail hardware that could directly compete with streaming boxes from companies like Apple, Amazon and Roku, Android TV is getting not as much attention among consumers.
However, Google has made significant inroads with TV manufacturers, operators and other consumer electronics manufacturers, with Android TV now running on a wide variety of hardware ranging from soundbars to projectors to cable boxes.
Vewd was previously known as Opera TV, but spun out of the browser maker following its acquisition by a consortium of Chinese investors in 2016. The company officially rebranded a year ago.
