[opendtv] Wired Magazine: Why GoogleTV was blocked

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2013 00:24:03 +0000

This article also mentions the revenues issue.

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder. Quoting:

"There are already a myriad of other ways to patch your computer into your home
entertainment system so that (say) you can watch online versions of programs
hosted by Hulu Plus on your big-screen TV. But Google TV provides a neat system
and interface that makes it unnecessary for you tie up your computer, figure
out all the cabling and use as many different interfaces as there are services."

Talk about making something trivial sound complicated. Especially in the days
of HDMI interfaces from computers and to TV sets. And how many people out there
worry that they have to use multiple web sites to get to everything that's on
the Internet? Weird, especially coming from Wired.

Bert

http://www.wired.com/business/2010/10/google-tv-growing-pains-networks-block-web-tv-shows/

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Google TV Growing Pains: Networks Block Web TV Shows
By John C Abell 10.22.10 5:39 PM

Follow @johncabell

Google's throwing a party, but network TV is snubbing the invitation.

Three major broadcast networks are blocking Google TV's access to their online
programs. That's not a good first sign for a product whose main purpose is to
make internet content as easy to watch as your local station, whether you're
looking at a TV screen or your computer.

To be clear, ABC, NBC and CBS are not stopping their over-the-air programming
from being viewed through Google TV, which is only now just going on sale.
Watching programs that come from your cable or satellite feed are unaffected.
But online versions of network programming - on the sites of the broadcasters,
which are ordinarily accessible from any computer - are not available from
Google TV, the Wall Street Journal first reported Friday.

And the reason is clearly to further postpone the time when you can cut the
cord.

Convergence has been a hot topic for more than a decade but Google TV is the
first serious attempt to combine the internet and broadcast television in sort
of simple "one-click" way. It's not about web surfing or e-mailing from your
couch, but rather getting easy access to programs off the web as easily as
you'd change channels. And, thanks to the broadcasters themselves, a lot of
professional content already lives online.

In Google's perfect world you pick up your remote and search for Star Trek and
get it, whether it's on Netflix, your media library or your cable company's
on-demand list. Google gets into your living room with a new way to provide
search, and all the ways it has to make money off that.

With Google TV, it is selling convergence for dummies. There are already a
myriad of other ways to patch your computer into your home entertainment system
so that (say) you can watch online versions of programs hosted by Hulu Plus on
your big-screen TV. But Google TV provides a neat system and interface that
makes it unnecessary for you tie up your computer, figure out all the cabling
and use as many different interfaces as there are services.

And it comes at a time of dizzying, overlapping options so numerous it's
difficult to assess what you "need." There are a plethora of boxes that deliver
content from Netflix and Amazon and web sources. With Tivo, you can search for
videos on Google-owned YouTube. As screens get larger they are also getting
smaller; TV on your smartphone or iPad are here now and you can use them to
watch online programming in your living room just as easily as on your commute.

So it's far from a certainty that the convenience of Google TV is enough to
break through anyway - but it's a very tough sell when so much potential
content is out of bounds and it's hard to explain what you have left without it.

Make no mistake: IP-delivered programming will be huge. The networks know it,
and even though they put much of their own content online the business models
of broadcasting the internet are miles apart.

As Michael Learnmonth writes in AdAge, online versions of prime-time programs
are part of a marketing scheme carefully devised so as not to kill the
broadcast revenue stream.

"The networks aren't blocking Google TV because it's Google. They are blocking
Google TV because it is putting a web TV show, with web TV show economics, on a
TV, which would be incredibly disruptive to their business," Learnmonth writes.
"The reason the networks are blocking Google TV and Boxee (and Hulu is still
PC-only) is about ad revenue: They don't get enough of it from the web. And
letting you watch Glee on your TV, but via the web and Google TV, means
substituting high broadcast revenue for lower digital revenue."

Google went into this eyes open. And while it has tried to come to terms with
the networks, it freely admits that it actually has no say in the matter of
what you get to watch using Google TV.

"Google TV enables access to all the web content you already get today on your
phone and PC," Google said in a statement. "But it is ultimately the content
owner's choice to restrict their fans from accessing their content on the
platform."

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[opendtv] Wired Magazine: Why GoogleTV was blocked

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