Strategy question
Should Google launch a TV service?
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Strategic judgment on entering a mature, capital intensive market and whether the company's core assets create a real advantage.
How to approach it
- Confirm what 'TV service' means here: live pay TV, a streaming bundle like YouTube TV, or original content.
- Size the market and note it is mature and already served by YouTube TV, Hulu, and cable operators.
- Assess Google's advantages: YouTube's reach, ad infrastructure, Google TV hardware, and first party data on viewing habits.
- Weigh the advantage against the cost of content licensing and the risk of thin margins in pay TV.
- Compare build versus partner options, such as deepening YouTube TV instead of a new brand.
- Recommend a direction with explicit risks, for example content cost inflation and churn from bundle fatigue.
What a strong answer includes
- Separates 'TV service' (live channels) from 'streaming content', since the strategic case differs sharply between them.
- Points out YouTube TV already exists, so the real question is whether to expand it rather than launch new.
- Uses a concrete advantage, Google's ad targeting and YouTube's 2 billion plus logged in users, as the basis for a recommendation.
- Flags content licensing costs as the key risk, citing that traditional pay TV margins are thin and shrinking.
Common mistakes
- Not noticing YouTube TV already exists and answering as if Google has zero footprint in this space.
- Recommending entry without naming a concrete, defensible advantage over incumbents.
- Ignoring cost structure, especially content licensing, which is what actually determines TV economics.
Likely follow-up questions
- How does this differ from YouTube TV, which already exists?
- What would make you say no instead of yes?
- How would you price it against cable and other streamers?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop