Vewd, one of the world’s largest over-the-top TV companies, has named former Android TV head Sascha Prüter as its chief product officer. In his new position, Prüter will be managing strategy and development for all of Vewd’s product offerings, including Vewd OS and its Android TV variant. Before taking his place in Vewd’s 15-year history, Prüter was the man in charge of every aspect of Google’s Android TV efforts, from developer advocacy to distribution and OEM relations. He made a quiet exit last month, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before jumping into that position, the industry veteran was Google’s senior program manager for Android TV. Even further back, he was the program manager for Android and helped to determine how the platform would move forward with development and distribution. Prior to his time at Google, he served in similar roles for Microsoft, including helping work on the company’s now-defunct Microsoft TV efforts.
Vewd itself provides an easy-to-use OTT platform for content creators, pay TV providers and media companies to use for distributing their programming. Vewd OS is a frontend for Vewd’s platform and toolset that can be pre-installed on streaming devices, smart TVs, and other systems, and the OS was recently launched in the form of an Android TV app as well. As an Android TV service, it still provides all the benefits of Vewd OS, including the ability to run proprietary apps and access pay TV streams that have partnered up with Vewd.
Vewd has been around in one form or another since 2003, and has always focused on one thing; OTT TV products. Vewd’s ideal customer is just about any company, ranging from OEMs to cable providers and programming creators, who are affected by the cord-cutting trend that has seen people getting rid of cable in favor of streaming services and other Internet-based entertainment over the past few years. The company’s wide range of solutions focuses on allowing those firms to continue connecting with consumers and providing them content even once they’ve cut the cord, though it does also license its software out for use on TV set-top boxes from cable companies as means of giving customers easier access to the programming that they’re paying for.