I earlier asked the question: Will Google Succeed with TV Where Apple and Microsoft Have Fallen Short? Well it seems that Google is also having a rocky road, at least according to Rick Munarriz at the Motely Fool. Rick noted that the Wall Street Journal reported on how Google is meeting some serious resistance from media giants in its plan to converge television with online video.
Apparently Google had no problem lining up A-list hardware partners. Intel is making the chips and Sony making high-def TVs with the Web-savvy software pre-installed. Logitech is even making set-top boxes for those who don’t want to pay up for a new Sony television and Best Buy has agreed to stock the enhanced TVs and Logitech’s boxes.
However, as Rick notes, these partnerships will not succeed unless Google can get the major networks to participate. Google TV aims to change the way we consume TV content. Instead of passively going along with e broadcast schedules, the platform can search the Web to find previous episodes, clips, and related content that is available to stream right away. It’s easier than TiVo as this approach eliminates the need for any kind of prep work such as loading up a hard drive.
The networks have many reasons to not play along. They make less money on streaming and Google TV will only take more traffic from the live shows with the ads. The Google approach gives to much power to the people and, of course, Google. They are going to have to figure out a way to get the networks to play along if they are going to succeed where apple and Microsoft have not.
