This is called the “reader exception” and has been available for a few years. It’s not something they did just for Google.
While this is true, the reader exception has historically been predicated on you not linking out from your app to actually make the purchase; users had to find it on their own. What's new and what the article focuses on is the External Link entitlement, which allows apps to actually link to where users can buy content.
AppleTV Plus was just released on Android, wasn’t it? Quid pro quo?