One of the highly touted features of TV sets at CES this year was the web browser enabled TV. Some quick examples that come to mind include the Sony Bravia Internet Link, Panasonic’s YouTube browser TV, Sharp’s Aquos Link that includes web widgets on their TV desktop, and the announcement (in September-07) they will come to market with a Yahoo portal TV targeting HDTV quality broadcasts. Not to be left behind Samsung hinted they would support RSS feeds in their Spring TV refresh line.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

So the hot new must-have feature on TVs at CES is web browsing capabilities and consumers can now differentiate products not just by brand, but by exclusive content provider deals offered by the manufacturers. Let’s see, there’s Sony offering CBS content, Sharp has Yahoo on their screen and buy Panasonic if you want YouTube. Wait a minute, isn’t the web hardware agnostic?

Yes, and beyond marketing hype - and perhaps a little convenience, these content deals are hard pressed to offer any real value to consumers.

But hold the phone, to get an idea of where this is all going, look no further than Japan. Back in August-07, we ran a Display Daily article on Japan TV makers seizing the advertising high ground through a little known Japan web consortium called "acTVila." Powered by browser enabled TVs, the idea is to offer video on demand and other web based services directly to viewers. The group is sponsored by no less than Japan’s top CE manufacturers Sony, Matsushita, Hitachi, Sharp, and Toshiba.

Like Bill Gates, who captured millions of eyeballs and cashed in on the lucrative "desktop real estate" the Japan consortia sees the living room TV as the new desktop of the 21st century, and wants a piece of the action.

Gates was living in the 1980’s world where the lines of hardware and software were clearly drawn. In fact, it was precisely that IBM mindset that opened the door for his fledgling company to get a foothold as a mainline PC software provider, and he never looked back.

Fast forward to the 21st century in the post-PC-AV convergence world where the internet has emerged as the next major video content distribution channel, along with the legacy technology of motion picture theaters; free broadcast TV; subscription cable and satellite; and recorded media like DVDs. The numbers tell the story, Google’s YouTube host 100M viewings a day (and that’s just one albeit popular site.)

The point to all this is, technology exists for manufacturers to write software that ship with their TVs, usurping any input source. The first screen viewers see could be a default "on-screen" that navigates directly to a web portal, every time the TV is turned-on. In essence, a web enabled desktop the TV makers control - complete with banner ads and the like.

It’s this kind of digital convergence that gets dangerous for entrenched broadcasters. No longer can they assume control over, or guarantee delivery of eyeballs that make up the life-blood of advertising. Even more to the point, the web-based ads will offer superior results because they are interactive. They deliver to advertisers clear and precise data on exactly who is watching specifically what, solving the age-old broadcast advertising dilemma.

So get ready broadcasters, for yet another assault on your fiefdom - this time from the very allies that deliver your programming. The approach has dangers for the CE companies too. Would Sony loose a television sale if customer were a fan of NBC instead of CBS? It is indeed an amazing time to be alive, but if you are averse to change, it’s scarier for some more than others.

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