SAN FRANCISCO: After 15 years of trying, Silicon Valley is getting ready to take over your television.
Most TV sets for sale by 2013 will be able to connect to the Internet right out of the box, setting the stage for companies such as Google, Yahoo! and Intel, to make televisions a lot more like computers and smartphones .
It has been a long time coming. WebTV Networks, a startup that began in a converted BMW dealership in Palo Alto, California, set out in the mid-1990 s to popularise Web surfing on TVs. While the company enticed Microsoft to buy it for $425 million in 1997, the WebTV set-top box never achieved mainstream appeal. Even as consumers got the Internet on their phones, TV viewing has stayed much the same as it was back then.
The difference now is new Internet televisions won’t require separate boxes, software and setup, says Steve Perlman, the founder of WebTV. The TV will already be connected to the Web, and consumers will get everything they need through that. “The days of the box sitting next to the TV are numbered,” said Perlman, who now runs Palo Alto-based OnLive, a company that is creating a Web-based video-game system.
In three years, 55% of all models shipped by TV manufacturers will have a Web connection, up from 18% this year, according to Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for the Arlington , Virginia-based Consumer Electronics Association.
Faster Internet connections are helping drive the trend, Perlman says. Most Americans now have broadband , not the dial-up connections that were dominant when WebTV debuted . Consumers also have so much more of their personal information online these days, increasing the need to have constant access to it.
“It is going to happen — it is inevitable ,” Perlman said. “We’re going to see a general movement toward having all of your content that is available through the Internet.” All the major TV manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, Sony and Vizio, are releasing sets that connect directly to the Internet — though the companies are taking different approaches.
Sony is part of a coalition with Intel and Google, according to people with knowledge of the partnership. That project, called Google TV, would make televisions more like a personal computer , letting people access any site they want, the people say. Samsung, the top maker of TVs, said last month that it is focusing on its own applications platform.
Eitan Bencuya, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment.
Intel is working to get its processors into Internet-connected TVs as part of a push into consumer electronics. Dadi Perlmutter, an executive vice president, said last month that the Santa Clara, California-based company was working with ‘big names’ in the industry. He declined to identify them. Not everyone is convinced Internet-connected TVs will catch on soon. Most Americans aren’t adept enough to embrace the technology, says Phillip Swann, editor of TVPredictions .com, an industry news site.
“It’s a niche audience. For the large majority of television users, it goes right over their heads.”
Technology companies aim to entice TV viewers by putting iPhonestyle apps on their screens. Couch potatoes also can make video calls via Skype, stream movies from Netflix and update their status on Facebook. Internet content will tie in to TV broadcasts as well, said Russ Schafer, a senior director of product marketing at Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo.
Yahoo has built a user interface specifically for Internet-connected TVs. It relies on widgets — small programmes that offer weather, news, shopping and social-networking features . The widgets run along the bottom of the screen.
Another company banking on the trend is Novato, California-based Sonic Solutions.
Companies that currently deliver Internet content over set-top boxes, whether it is a cable box, game console or digital video recorder, will have to rethink their approach, says Ken Dulaney , an analyst at Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner.
“All the cable and content operators now are really stuck in the mud,” Dulaney said. “They have their boxes, they don’t expand them a lot, and the Internet is doing an end run around them, because they’ve been so hung up on control.”
A generational shift also works in favor of melding the Internet and TV. For younger viewers — raised in a world of social networking, multiplayer games and virtual worlds such as Linden Lab’s Second Life — regular television isn’t interactive enough. When Powell was FCC chairman, he encountered reports that the number of young boys watching TV was dropping . He tried to gain some insight from his own son, who was 10 at the time. “You don’t watch a lot of TV, why not?” Powell recalled asking him. He looked at me, and said, “Why, dad? It doesn’t do anything” .
Most TV sets for sale by 2013 will be able to connect to the Internet right out of the box, setting the stage for companies such as Google, Yahoo! and Intel, to make televisions a lot more like computers and smartphones .
“It is no longer a bridge too far for the average user,” said Michael Powell , a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission who now runs a media consulting firm. Using TVs to connect to the Internet “is a very natural extension of what they’ve already embraced in their technological life” .
It has been a long time coming. WebTV Networks, a startup that began in a converted BMW dealership in Palo Alto, California, set out in the mid-1990 s to popularise Web surfing on TVs. While the company enticed Microsoft to buy it for $425 million in 1997, the WebTV set-top box never achieved mainstream appeal. Even as consumers got the Internet on their phones, TV viewing has stayed much the same as it was back then.
The difference now is new Internet televisions won’t require separate boxes, software and setup, says Steve Perlman, the founder of WebTV. The TV will already be connected to the Web, and consumers will get everything they need through that. “The days of the box sitting next to the TV are numbered,” said Perlman, who now runs Palo Alto-based OnLive, a company that is creating a Web-based video-game system.
In three years, 55% of all models shipped by TV manufacturers will have a Web connection, up from 18% this year, according to Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for the Arlington , Virginia-based Consumer Electronics Association.
Discover the stories of your interest
Faster Internet connections are helping drive the trend, Perlman says. Most Americans now have broadband , not the dial-up connections that were dominant when WebTV debuted . Consumers also have so much more of their personal information online these days, increasing the need to have constant access to it.
“It is going to happen — it is inevitable ,” Perlman said. “We’re going to see a general movement toward having all of your content that is available through the Internet.” All the major TV manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, Sony and Vizio, are releasing sets that connect directly to the Internet — though the companies are taking different approaches.
Sony is part of a coalition with Intel and Google, according to people with knowledge of the partnership. That project, called Google TV, would make televisions more like a personal computer , letting people access any site they want, the people say. Samsung, the top maker of TVs, said last month that it is focusing on its own applications platform.
Eitan Bencuya, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment.
Intel is working to get its processors into Internet-connected TVs as part of a push into consumer electronics. Dadi Perlmutter, an executive vice president, said last month that the Santa Clara, California-based company was working with ‘big names’ in the industry. He declined to identify them. Not everyone is convinced Internet-connected TVs will catch on soon. Most Americans aren’t adept enough to embrace the technology, says Phillip Swann, editor of TVPredictions .com, an industry news site.
“It’s a niche audience. For the large majority of television users, it goes right over their heads.”
Technology companies aim to entice TV viewers by putting iPhonestyle apps on their screens. Couch potatoes also can make video calls via Skype, stream movies from Netflix and update their status on Facebook. Internet content will tie in to TV broadcasts as well, said Russ Schafer, a senior director of product marketing at Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo.
Yahoo has built a user interface specifically for Internet-connected TVs. It relies on widgets — small programmes that offer weather, news, shopping and social-networking features . The widgets run along the bottom of the screen.
Another company banking on the trend is Novato, California-based Sonic Solutions.
Companies that currently deliver Internet content over set-top boxes, whether it is a cable box, game console or digital video recorder, will have to rethink their approach, says Ken Dulaney , an analyst at Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner.
Discover the stories of your interest
“All the cable and content operators now are really stuck in the mud,” Dulaney said. “They have their boxes, they don’t expand them a lot, and the Internet is doing an end run around them, because they’ve been so hung up on control.”
A generational shift also works in favor of melding the Internet and TV. For younger viewers — raised in a world of social networking, multiplayer games and virtual worlds such as Linden Lab’s Second Life — regular television isn’t interactive enough. When Powell was FCC chairman, he encountered reports that the number of young boys watching TV was dropping . He tried to gain some insight from his own son, who was 10 at the time. “You don’t watch a lot of TV, why not?” Powell recalled asking him. He looked at me, and said, “Why, dad? It doesn’t do anything” .
Get Unlimited Access to The Economic Times
