Internet-ready TVs
Interesting. More people are watching video, from YouTube to full length TV shows on their laptops. The rage recently was IPTV, with Apple and others offering set top boxes for consumers to watch their multimedia stuff on their big screens.
And few bought the set top boxes.
But what if it were built-in to your flat screen?
Now that makes sense. The Wall Street Journal breaks down how TV companies are exploring the sub category of Web ready TVs, coming to a living room or lounge near you. Perhaps soon.
We’ll hear more about these TVs from this week’s CES show in Vegas.
Amid other developments pegged to this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo Inc. and Intel Corp. plan to announce support from several major consumer-electronics companies to sell TV sets that come with software, dubbed widgets, that make it easier to call up Web content on TV sets using ordinary remote controls rather than computer keyboards.
Imagine the impact on the cable companies, or even the network or local affiliates:
Still, the topic remains a hot one in high-tech circles because of the potential impact on existing business models in the entertainment industry. Instead of the often expensive packages of video content from cable and satellite providers, the Internet could theoretically deliver a much wider array of entertainment and information choices — many of them free.
This article mentions TV Widgets, something Yahoo! has been developing:
TV Widgets are small Web applications that make it easy to surf your favorites sites with your remote control. Watch Web videos, track your favorite teams or stocks, interact with friends and family, and stay current on news and information by clicking on the compact, interactive apps that sit on top of your normal TV picture.
And here’s more from newteevee.com:
Watching web video on your TV set isn’t anything new. Set-top boxes like TiVo and the Apple TV have been offering web video options for a while, but recently we’ve begun to see where it’s heading. YouTube HD streams on an HDTV look pretty sweet, and Netflix, which is already streaming content (some of it in HD) to a host of set-top boxes, will soon be streaming content directly to LG televisions with no external box required.
And it’s not just the web video content that’ll be showing up on oldteevee. Intel is also working with Yahoo to widgetize TV sets, offering weather updates, ticker symbols, Flickr integration and more.
And finally, another post from newteevee.com on Netflix’s big announcement today:
Netflix announced today that its streaming service will be embedded directly into broadband-enabled LG HDTVs coming out this spring. This marks the first time that streaming Netflix content to a television set won’t require an external box like the Roku.
Now imagine when all those TVs start offering all those video services (and more!). You could watch new release content through a la carte rental, courtesy of Amazon; library titles through your Netflix subscription; and your favorite web video through YouTube — all with the push of a button on your remote (I pity the UI designers tasked with making all that content navigable and searchable).
