Five years ago this week… AT&T’s version of Android TV Operator Tier became the first showing of the stack in the US pay TV marketplace, rolling out the DirectTV Now set top featuring a reskinned operator tier launcher. Google had led development with Android TV Operator Tier in Europe, beginning first implementations in January 2018, before AT&T bucked a trend 10 months later that would challenge the investments its great TV rival Comcast had poured into developing the RDK-Video framework. AT&T may be a fading force in video, but Android-powered DirecTV devices are alive and well with 2023 Humax-made models rolling off the shelves supporting AV1 decode. Global subscription and ad-supported streaming services amassed $16.7 billion in collective Q3 2023 revenue, a…