Google was an elephant in the room at IBC 2017, wooing operators with its latest version of Android TV, which allows them more control over recommendations so that they can prioritize their own content above third-party OTT material. At the same time operators gain access to the extensive Android app ecosystem as well as a platform for unifying linear broadcast and third-party OTT services within a common and consistent UI. They also have plenty of vendors offering tools to help them deploy Android TV effectively. Sweden’s Accedo was one, peddling its Operator Tier Android TV Launcher as a platform within its Studio Pay TV edition product at IBC. The flipside is that Google can get access to search and user…