LOSING GROUND ACROSS the globe to the Android TV platform, RDK Management announced a key initiative that will enable pay TV operators to more easily integrate popular over-the-top apps into their user interfaces. The Reference Design Kit (RDK) is an open-source software stack designed for pay TV set-tops and jointly backed by Comcast, Charter Communications and Liberty Global. In addition to the JV partners, more than 25 pay TV operators around the world use it, including Cox Communications and Canada's Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Videotron. All told, the "RDK community" includes more than 350 companies, among them set-top box vendors, chipmakers and software developers. Over the last 18 months, though, a number of operators have opted to use Google's "Operator Tier" version of its Android TV platform to power their set-tops, which gives them the capability to easily offer customers access to popular OTT services including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video through the Google Play Store.
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