CES: TV, Internet becoming one

Based on the frenzy of activity at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it won’t be long before it’s hard to separate TV content from Internet content.

Consumer electronics vendors, service providers and industry newcomers are all rushing to create the perfect “mash-up” of traditional broadcast or RF TV and Internet content including video and social networking sites. Just in the first two days of CES, major players such as AT&T, Microsoft, Verizon, Sony, AOL, Motorola and Comcast have made major announcements in this area and much more is expected.

In fact, said analyst Danny Briere, president of the TeleChoice consultancy, the space is likely to be overcrowded very quickly.

“All the TV guys are trying to put the Internet directly into the TV and come up with a navigation system that can eliminate the set-top,” he said. “Plus the consumer electronics folks are coming up with their own devices that sit on the TV and integrate the Internet. There are now so many different ways people will buy and search for video. It’s going to be a very crowded market--and it could get very bloody.”

For example, Sony Electronics and AOL have teamed up to make AOL TV, the extensive video library assembled and widely touted by AOL, available on Sony sets via Sony’s new Bravia Internet link, announced at CES. The TV sets, due in the summer of 2007, come with an optional module for the remote control that enables Internet browsing and viewing of AOL TV content, including fast-forwarding, pausing and other TV controls.

AT&T has been touting a “three-screen strategy” since last summer, and at CES announced its first content deal and its first advertiser. Chase Card Services will sponsor AT&T’s exclusive presentation of video, music and images from Swampstock 2006, a music festival and charity fundraiser hosted by country singer Tim McGraw. The content will be distributed on AT&T’s blue room Web site, on its U-Verse TV and AT&T Homezone service, and via Cingular Wireless. Chase will get banner ads on the Swampstock area of AT&T blue room, on-air spots in the video-on-demand airing, and distribution of cell phone wallpaper and voice tones on Cingular.
Comcast and Motorola announced an extension of their existing agreement for Comcast to purchase Motorola set-tops, including those that support Motorola’s Follow Me TV that enables time-shifting and device-shifting of TV content.

TVNGO, a joint Israeli-Chinese venture, unveiled its new system, which re-formats Internet content to fit a broadcast TV format and enables the consumer to use a remote control to shift from broadcast content to Internet content. The system has been trialed in Israel and is contracted for deployment by a Chinese service provider as well.

Another player, Media Zone, is launching its Social TV platform at CES on Tuesday, promising a next-generation broadband TV platform that incorporates internet content.