Announcing new partnerships fr the forthcoming Google TV, the North American search giant is moving ever closer to becoming the first option for Internet through Television.
Joining up with Netflix, NBA and Amazon, the TV service works by having custom applications and websites which work with the larger dimensions of modern television. The hardware to support this is to be on sale in the US in the next few weeks. This comes in the form of a Logitech set-top box (decoder) and Sony Television and Blu-ray DVD player.
The allocated domain for Google TV is www.google.com/tv, and it’s looking like we are going to be blending everyday TV with Internet surfing from the living room a little sooner than we thought. Not wanting to be left behind like with the iPhone vs Google Android phone battle, Google is pushing ahead prematurely to gain a foothold in this exciting and unpredictable market place.
Others already on board with Google are YouTube (Google owned of course), CNBC network, USA Today, Amazon and the New York Times. The Logitech set-top, named the Revue, will be launched in San Francisco on Wednesday 6th October. On the following Tuesday (12th), Sony will showcase it’s Google ready TV and Blu-Ray hardware in New York.
Despite having the only dedicated TV on the market, there is already competition from Roku and Apple with box’s previously launched, but they are not as advanced as the Google effort and don’t have the compatible TVs as yet. They are however significantly cheaper on the US market, being closer to $60 for the Roku as appose to an estimated $300 for the Google / Logitech box.
The main worry for Google at this point is the fact that the 4 major US TV networks are not prepared to speak about joining Google with customised apps. Despite the fact that many are calling this the start of the interactive TV Internet revolution, networks like ABC and NBC see the Internet as something which can potentially kill revenues by moving advertising and movie purchases across to the net instead of the traditional cable.
