How O2 Czech Republic became the first operator in the world to migrate Linux STBs to Android TV

By 2017, O2 Czech Republic had set itself a strategic goal that would shape the next five years of TV product development: build an interactive TV service that could compete on user experience with the best global streaming platforms while preserving the technical depth required of a tier-one telco — multi-room, broadcast-grade live TV, and full operator control over the device fleet in subscribers' homes.

The O2 TV team faced two distinct generations of problems — separated by four years. In 2017, the operator needed a TV platform that did not yet exist on the market. In 2021, the world had moved to Android TV, and 400,000+ Linux set-top boxes were already deployed in Czech homes.

The alternative — migrating the existing Linux devices to Android TV Operator Tier through software alone — required something Google had never authorised before: certification of an existing third-party Linux STB for Android TV Operator Tier, with all the security, performance, and quality bars that come with the programme.

Smartlabs had been O2's TV platform partner since 2017, and the relationship was the foundation on which the migration became possible:

“SmartLabs has supported O2 at every stage of this world-first Linux to Android TV Operator Tier migration process. We have worked very closely with an excellent O2 team and with Google, to get the project completed. I believe that our 10-year partnership with Google provided a solid framework for this unique endeavour.”

Smartlabs delivered the O2 TV platform across two distinct phases — original launch in 2018 and Android TV migration from 2021 onwards — with continuous service evolution throughout.

Bespoke UHD hybrid set-top box

Smartlabs designed and manufactured the original O2 TV set-top box around the Amlogic S905D3 chipset, with a hybrid architecture combining DVB-C broadcast reception with IP-based delivery. The device was visually distinctive — its industrial design was created by Czech designer Martin Tvaruzek — and supported UHD output, hardware HEVC decoding, and a remote-control experience tuned to the O2 TV interface. The box originally shipped running Linux, with the Smartlabs SmartTUBE client framework on top.

Service delivery (SmartTUBE)

SmartTUBE provided the back-end for subscriber accounts, content metadata, EPG, entitlements at every playback request, multi-profile management, and concurrent-device session control. The platform integrated with O2's BSS and content provisioning systems, and supported the multi-room and multi-screen requirements that defined the original 2018 product.

Multi-screen applications

Smartlabs developed and deployed native applications across the full device matrix O2 TV needed to reach:

• Bespoke UHD STB — the primary in-home device, with hardware HEVC decoding, UHD output, and a remote-control experience tuned to the O2 TV interface.
• Samsung Tizen and LG webOS — distributed through the official TV stores.
• iOS and Android mobile apps — for viewing on the go and in second-screen scenarios.
• Web — for desktop and laptop viewing without an additional device.

All clients share a unified user experience — same content rails, same Continue Watching, same recommendations — synchronised through the SmartTUBE backend.

Android TV Operator Tier migration — the world-first part

From 2021, Smartlabs led the engineering work that turned the existing Linux STB fleet into Android TV Operator Tier devices. Three workstreams ran in parallel:

• Certification. Smartlabs drove the certification process in cooperation with a third-party certification laboratory, validating that the existing Amlogic S905D3-based hardware in subscribers' homes met every Android TV Operator Tier requirement Google specified — security model, performance baseline, audio/video pipeline, remote-control behaviour, and the operator-controlled launcher experience.
• Remote migration software. The migration software, developed by Smartlabs, converted boxes from Linux to Android TV Operator Tier across the network, with rollback capability at every stage. The migration was designed to require zero engineering staff visits to subscribers' homes and zero service interruption — subscribers did not lose access to their TV service during the transition.
• Custom Android TV launcher. Smartlabs developed a brand-new operator-controlled launcher for both Smartlabs-built O2 STBs and the third-party Android TV devices that O2 customers also use. The launcher integrated O2 TV content with the wider Android TV experience — Google Play, YouTube, and other streaming applications — under a unified home screen.

As Broadband TV News reported in August 2022, O2 became the first company in the world to strike an agreement with Google enabling the migration of existing Linux STBs deployed with O2 customers to the Android TV Operator Tier platform. By that announcement, 400,000+ devices had already been migrated.

Ongoing service evolution

The Smartlabs–O2 partnership did not end at the Android TV migration. Smartlabs continues to deliver new capabilities for the O2 TV service: a multi-dimensional TV feature for sports allows subscribers to watch up to six matches simultaneously with multiple camera angles, the HBO Max VoD library was integrated into the O2 TV interface to deepen the on-demand catalogue, and the platform continues to evolve in line with O2's product roadmap.

The Android TV migration was structured as a phased rollout across the network. Devices were migrated in waves, with telemetry from each wave validating stability before the next wave was scheduled. Rollback capability was preserved at every stage of the migration software, so any device exhibiting issues could be returned to a known-good state without subscriber action. Smartlabs and O2 ran the rollout jointly, with Google involved in the certification milestones throughout.

• 400,000+ STBs migrated from Linux to Android TV Operator Tier in the field — confirmed publicly by Broadband TV News in August 2022.
• A world-first agreement with Google. No previous operator had successfully argued the case for migrating an existing third-party Linux STB fleet to Android TV Operator Tier through software alone. O2 became the precedent.
• Zero engineer visits and zero service interruption. The migration was executed entirely over the air, on the hardware already deployed in subscribers' homes, without disrupting day-to-day TV viewing.
• Capital expenditure avoided. The alternative — replacing 400,000+ STBs through truck rolls — would have represented a multi-tens-of-millions-of-euros capex programme. By migrating in place, O2 retained its hardware investment and redirected capacity to service evolution.
• A modern, Google-ecosystem-native TV experience. Subscribers gained direct access to YouTube, Google Play, and the wider Android TV catalogue from the same set-top box they had been using — alongside the full O2 TV service in an operator-controlled launcher.
• A platform that has continued to evolve. Multi-dimensional sports viewing, HBO Max integration, and ongoing application updates have kept O2 TV competitive with global streaming services in the years since the migration.

“What O2 and Smartlabs achieved together is, frankly, the kind of project that defines a vendor relationship. Co-developing a custom STB and platform from scratch in 2018 was already significant. Coming back four years later and engineering the world's first Linux-to-Android TV Operator Tier migration on the same fleet — without engineer visits, without service disruption, certified by Google — set a precedent that the entire industry has since referenced.”

With the Android TV foundation in place, the O2 TV roadmap with Smartlabs continues to focus on user-experience refinement, expanded streaming-service integrations, and operational analytics. For a comparable in-field migration story on a different fleet, see the Ucom Uplay launch in Armenia, or explore the rest of the Smartlabs case studies.