Networks Block Web Programs From Being Viewed on Google TV
ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their websites from being viewable on Google Inc.'s new Web-TV service, exposing the rift that remains between the technology giant and some of the media companies it wants to supply content for its new products.
Context & Ripple Effects
The block is the concrete form of the anxiety that has shadowed the product all year: back in August, coverage of the Google TV plan causing jitters in Hollywood flagged exactly this fear that free web streams would cannibalize the cable bundle if they became couch-viewable. Google had spent 2010 building toward the living room — Sony hardware, a March push with partners seeking a television foothold — on the assumption that the open web was its content library.
ABC, CBS and NBC are now saying otherwise, using browser-level blocking to keep their sites' shows off the device at launch. Reuters reports Google is already in talks to get the sites unblocked, so this reads as an opening negotiating position rather than a permanent wall — consistent with how these same networks have been testing platform-by-platform strategies all year, from CBS planning a full web-video slate on the iPad while limiting it elsewhere, to NBC sticking with Flash against Apple's objections.
First-order effects
- At launch, Google TV's core promise — the whole web on your television — is visibly broken for three of the four major US broadcasters' sites, undercutting the product's headline pitch.
- Google is forced into direct negotiations with ABC, CBS and NBC to restore access, turning what it framed as an open-web device into one that ships with holes negotiated network by network.
Second-order effects
- Every remaining broadcaster now faces the same fork: join the block to protect affiliate fees and retrans revenue, or leave streams open and become Google TV's differentiating content — a choice CBS in particular is positioned to weigh given Les Moonves' willingness to cut iTunes show prices to 99 cents when distribution terms improve.
- Ad-supported free streams start getting priced differently by device class, pushing viewers of blocked sites toward paid alternatives like Netflix or iTunes on connected TVs and shifting leverage toward whoever holds rights to put shows on those platforms.
Third-order effects
- Device-level access control becomes a standard bargaining lever between content owners and hardware platforms, reviving the question posed back in 2006 about where television programming actually lives — with networks asserting the right to decide which screens may display their streams.
- If blocking proves effective, 'smart TV' ecosystems stratify into walled sets of approved apps rather than open browsers, and the value of a TV software platform comes to depend on signed content deals rather than web compatibility.
The trend: Television networks are converting free web streams into a licensed, per-device negotiation, forcing living-room hardware makers to win Hollywood's approval stream by stream.