Since it’s release in August 2013, the Chromecast has been a much sought after device not only for anyone living in the Google Eco-System, but for anyone, as evidenced by the stock shortages that have plagued the US. But access to the dongle has only ‘officially’ been to those people living in the US but as of today, Google has announced that 10 European countries, and Canada will begin selling the Chromecast.
In addition to the UK and France, who we saw launch information for the other day, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden will all be able to purchase a Chromecast. The Chromecast will be going on-sale through Google Play and Amazon online as well as electronics retailers such as Currys PC World, Elkjøp, FNAC, Saturn, Media Markt but there will be more.
Google has struck deals for local content distribution, much the same as they did with Netflix initially and then with HBO GO and Hulu Plus in the US. In the UK, BBC iPlayer is onboard, in France TV Pluzz and SFR TV are launch partners with CANALPLAY coming soon and in Germany Watchever is onboard with Maxdrome coming soon.
We KNOW that there are Chromecast’s in the Google Australia offices, we’ve consistently heard from developers that Google has ‘big plans’ for the Chromecast. With the launch of Google Play TV Shows in addition to the existing Google Play Movies already in place, Google has good reason to want to have the Chromecast on-sale here in Australia, as to whether they will launch in Google Play or through their favourite two retailers – JB Hifi and Harvey Norman is another question. We can also only hope that Google is using the intervening time between now and the eventual launch to queue up some great local content launch partners as well.
Who will Google Sell the Chromecast through in Australia? Which media distributors will Google have on-board when they do launch?
