Here comes Google TV
It's been almost five months since we introduced Google TV to the world at Google I/O, and today we're happy to give you an update on our progress. For those who haven't yet heard of it, Google TV is a new way to think about TV: it's a platform that combines …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google introduced the television-and-web platform at Google I/O roughly five months earlier, following a March look at how the service might work and a May guide to its proposed features. By June, coverage had already framed it as a consequential move for television, rather than a simple device launch.
The product scope had also expanded beyond video discovery: Google had confirmed a podcast directory that would sit alongside DVR recordings. The October rollout turns that platform framing into a consumer offering, with Netflix, Twitter and Pandora among the included services.
First-order effects
- Google TV becomes a distribution surface for Netflix, Twitter and Pandora, placing their services inside a television-and-web interface rather than limiting them to separate devices or websites.
- Google TV users gain a single environment for web services, TV viewing, DVR recordings and podcast subscriptions.
Second-order effects
- Netflix, Twitter and Pandora gain prominence from Google TV placement, while Google determines the interface through which viewers encounter those services.
- Television content partners must treat application availability and interface placement as part of their relationship with Google, alongside conventional programming distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the platform gains adoption, control over the television experience shifts toward software platforms that organize channels, recordings and web services in one interface.
- Google TV is an early test of whether the living-room screen becomes a platform market in which service integrations matter as much as the underlying television hardware.
The trend: Television is moving toward software-led interfaces that combine traditional viewing with web services and subscriptions.