Google offers reduced developer fees to incentivize making media apps for TVs, cars, smartwatches, and tablets

In November last year, Apple announced that it was cutting the App Store commission rate to 15% for developers making less than $1 million in revenue. Google followed suit in March this year and slashed the Play Store fee by half. Earlier this month, Amazon also joined the club and announced the Appstore Small Business Accelerator Program to cut its app store revenue. Google is now taking an additional step to further incentivize media app development for TVs, cars, smartwatches, and tablets.

Google is opening its Play Media Experience Program to all developers, which was previously only available in beta for a few companies. As part of the program, developers will only have to give up 15% of revenue during the program term on top of the reduced Play Store fee of 15% for the first $1 million in revenue that will go into effect soon. This means that developers who participate in the program will only have to bear a 15% service fee, even if their revenue exceeds $1 million. Additionally, developers who join the program will get “additional discovery and engagement opportunities across devices.”

The Play Media Experience program will be open to all developers interested in making apps in the following categories:

• Video: high-quality video content for the living room; requires integrations with Android TV, Google TV, and Google Cast
• Audio: subscription music and audio services that work everywhere; requires integrations with Wear OS, Android Auto, Android TV, and Google Cast
• Books: compelling reading experience on larger screens; optimized experience on tablets, foldable, and integration with the new Entertainment Space.

Developers will also have to ensure that their apps have over 100,000 monthly active installs to qualify for the program. Furthermore, their account must be in good standing, and the app must integrate with specific Google platforms and APIs based on the type of media content. Based on the type of media, developers will be expected to fulfill the following requirements:

• Video apps are expected to support Android TV, Google TV, and Cast platforms with cross-device playback and sign-in integrations. The content must be primarily living room-first video programming offerings, like movies, TV shows, live sports, and live news.
• Audio apps are expected to support Wear OS, Android Auto, Android TV, and Google Cast platforms. Additionally, the content must be premium music and audio content via subscription.
• Book apps are expected to support tablet and foldable optimizations as well as Entertainment Space. Audiobook apps, in particular, must support Wear OS and Android Auto. In addition, the content must include premium books, audiobooks, and/or comics.

If you’d like to join the Play Media Experience program, you can express your interest by following this link.

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