Sony Puts the Internet on TV
LAS VEGAS–Electronics makers are again trying to bring the Internet to the TV, the oft-bungled idea of convergence, with simpler links that remove the PC from the mix. It's the latest effort to keep the television at the center of entertainment as online videos increasingly grab the attention of consumers.
At the Consumer Electronics Show here, Sony unveiled its Internet Video Link, a small module that will plug into the back of most of its new Bravia flat-panel televisions. The device then plugs into a broadband Internet connection and links the TV to free Internet video from Sony partners, including AOL and Yahoo!, as well as from Sony-owned Internet and entertainment groups.
Consumers can call up the videos using the TV's remote, and they're arranged in "channels" that echo broadcast programming, Sony executives explained. They said pricing wasn't set for the module, which will hit the market sometime this summer. Some of the programming will be available in high-definition format, though Sony didn't include full-run programming or movies in its demonstrations–limiting the professional videos to movie trailers and other shorts. That could mean the most compelling video might come from Grouper, a Sony Web company that features amateur flicks.
The emphasis is on simplifying access to Web content, Sony execs said. They don't want a repeat of previous efforts to turn the TV into another Web-surfing device, experiments that failed with consumers. The limited selection of programming also reflects the continuing battle over copyrights, as studios and music companies–including Sony's own–hesitate to make their movies and songs available for downloading to new devices.
A wider approach is being offered by less mainstream companies, including Sling Media, which shook up the video world a couple of years ago with its box that allows consumers to watch their home TV from any Web-connected device. Now Sling is flipping the flow with a new SlingCatcher that will show Web content on televisions. The idea is to open the entire Web up to TV viewing, says Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian: "The notion of providing subsets of it on the TV screen just doesn't cut it."
Unlike Sony's approach, the SlingCatcher at least initially will require users, when it is introduced later this year, to manage the Web content from a PC. But it will have the ability to stream video directly to a TV, without a PC, after Sling Media is able to find partners willing to deliver their content through the player.
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