Congratulations, Austrian readers, you're the latest ones to get access to paid TV shows on Google Play. And they're sincere congratulations, too - it's still a pretty small club. Right now there are only eight countries that can stream TV via the Play Store (the others being the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan). Compare that to over one hundred countries that have access to Google Play Movies, as listed on the Play Store's help page. Austria itself was given access to movies almost two years ago.

So why the slow rollout for the boob tube? Google's mum on the subject, so we'll have to point the finger at the inscrutable world of international media licensing. Hollywood movies are usually set up for international distribution well before release (often with a distributor that differs from the actual studio), and other film production hotspots around the world have generally adopted the same model. TV shows rarely get international licensing right away - outside the US it's only the most popular TV shows that get licensed and/or translated for international markets. There are a few specialized niches like anime or telenovelas, but they're not enough to carry a full catalog.

Of course all that's speculation. But given the slow rollout of Google Play TV shows so far, I wouldn't hold my breath for a lot of new markets any time soon.

Source: Google Play Store support