Vodafone TV to use Google Cloud advanced gen AI capabilities
October 8, 2024 15.44 Europe/London By Julian Clover


Vodafone has signed a new partnership agreement with Google that will bring new Generative powered devices to millions of the telcos customers across Europe and Africa.

New personalisation will be added to Vodafone TV, with improved content search and recommendations using Google Cloud’s gen AI across its set-top boxes, with a view to rolling out advertising using Google Ad Manager in the future.

The agreement will bring storage, security, and AI assistance to Vodafone’s customers in 15 countries, as well as its partners in an additional 45 markets worldwide, while Google will use Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services to improve workforce productivity.

Vodafone will offer Google One AI Premium subscription plans, which include Gemini Advanced, in select territories by 2025.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive, said: “Together, Vodafone and Google will put new AI-powered content and devices into the hands of millions of more consumers. Using these services, our customers can discover new ways to learn, create and communicate, as well as consume TV, on a scale we haven’t seen before.”

“Our expanded partnership with Vodafone will help bring our most advanced AI products and services, including our Gemini models, to more people across Europe and Africa,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “I’m excited to see how Vodafone’s consumers, small businesses and governments, will use generative AI and Google Cloud to transform the way they work and access information.”

Vodafone and Google will work towards enhancing Vodafone TV, which adopted Android TV in 2023, using Google Cloud’s advanced gen AI capabilities to provide additional content discovery features, rewards, and offers, as well as content monetization with Google Ad Manager to deliver a better ads experience.

Vodafone TV, powered by Android, is already available in seven European countries.

The teams are also exploring a more deeply-integrated YouTube experience across Vodafone TV devices.

Both companies intend to jointly promote the use of universal industry standards in areas such as online safety, responsible AI development, network performance, and interoperability to drive economies of scale in industrial efficiency, boost innovation, and improve public services at scale.