Vizio Google TV Concept

Google TV has been released for a couple of months now and there has been lots of speculation about the future of the product and how it will affect our viewing experience.  The biggest issues around the platform is the backlash from the TV networks who fail to see how IPTV products can fit into their revenue stream and their fear of allowing pirated media to be easily found and displayed.

Until we see applications for Google TV that give the experience you get on your desktop, like those experienced through Hulu, it may be a slow uphill climb.  Hulu and other online content is supported by advertising built into the broadcasts and enhanced subscriptions required to get the latest and greatest content.  The only step now is to work out how to get this revenue stream into the hands and pockets of the major networks.

While more and more networks decide to block their content from being viewed through Google TV products, including Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, CBS Corp. and NBC, it doesn’t sound like it’s stopping manufacturers from considering products based on the Google TV technology.

A report released on the Business Week site yesterday insinuates that Toshiba, Vizio and Samsung are working on products we will hopefully see at CES in January.  Apparently, people close to the subject stated that two of the companies will announce products at CES but declined to be identified.

The more manufacturers Google can get on board the Google TV bandwagon, the more support we should see from the networks and the more solutions will get devised to make sure that everyone gets their revenue streams in order.

All three of these manufacturers currently make Internet enabled TVs and embedding the Google TV platform into their future products just seems like a natural choice.  Having a single platform that everyone can use will only benefit everyone and means that application developers only need to develop a single application that can be distributed to all the manufacturers. Sounds ideal, doesn’t it!

Jeff Barney, General Manager of Digital Products at Toshiba, was quoted as saying:

“Google certainly is a key partner for us on the PC side and will likely be key for us on the TV side as well.”

Samsung and Vizio have been very quiet about the products and have declined to comment on multiple occasions or they have indicated that they are considering products but no decisions have been made yet.

Source BusinessWeek via ThedroidGuy