« Previous post
Next post »

September 18, 2006

Google Video could be headed to Apple’s iTV

Marshall Kirkpatrick

33 comments »

Google is reportedly in talks with Apple to allow users of the forthcoming Apple iTV set top box to view files from Google Video on their televisions.

The iTV was announced at Apple’s “It’s Showtime” event last week. Set for release in the first quarter of 2007 it will deliver iTunes and iPhoto content from PCs and Macs by wifi to the TV. Though the name is likely to change it will apparently sell for $299.

There’s no word yet whether ripped DVDs or other files will be viewable through iTV. If talks between Google and Apple are regarding whether to make it possible for the systems to be connected instead of some sort of cross promotion agreement, then that would indicate to me that the iTV will be very locked down and much less useful than it could be. The elephant in the middle of the room as far as iTunes is concerned is the DRM; customers have apparently accepted it to some degree (though recent studies are finding that almost none of the music on iPods was bought on iTunes) but iTV may be a whole new DRM can of worms.

Contextual advertising by Google on iTV is also a possibility that a number of people are discussing and could be quite interesting.

Google Video competes with Apple in selling some TV episodes. AOL Videos are also promoted on the Google Video page as a result of the partnership between those two companies. Where will the lines be drawn and what will be viewable through iTV? So far the product is months away from market and the talks between Apple and Google are just talks. By the time the iTV, or whatever it ends up being called, is reality - Apple could make all kinds of exciting deals to allow us to watch some of our video files on our TVs.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. What’s on iTV: Google, YouTube, iFilm, Metacafe …

    September 18th, 2006 at 7:37 pm

  2. Google Video on Apple iTV « the primitive

    September 19th, 2006 at 10:57 am

  3. brilliantdays.com | It’s epidemic - soon your tv will have a zillion channels

    September 20th, 2006 at 6:04 am

  4. Mi otro blog… » Blog Archive » Distribución de vídeo por Internet: Más noticias

    September 21st, 2006 at 1:36 pm

  5. Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection » Blog Archive » Dr. DivX or Mr. Hyde - The $145 Million Dollar Question

    October 2nd, 2006 at 9:42 pm

  6. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Will Apple Partner With TiVo?

    December 6th, 2006 at 5:08 pm

  7. Will Apple Partner With TiVo? at Swiss Podcast Directory and Blog

    December 6th, 2006 at 5:20 pm

  8. Start-up.co.nz » Apple to Partner with Tivo?

    December 6th, 2006 at 7:07 pm

  9. Will Apple Partner With TiVo?

    January 8th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

  10. lodine

    February 3rd, 2007 at 5:03 am

  11. diet pills

    March 3rd, 2007 at 3:09 am

  12. credit card consolidation

    March 11th, 2007 at 7:51 am

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Scott Truitt

    September 18th, 2006 at 1:30 pm

    This is a more than a content-sharing deal. Apple doesn’t need content per se, they need the infrastructure to cheaply / efficiently blast these bits across the globe. And if that’s what this is about, I can’t think of anyone better than Google to do business with…

  2. Marshall Kirkpatrick

    September 18th, 2006 at 1:33 pm

    interesting thought.

  3. Mike

    September 18th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

    You can already do all of this and more with the XBMC and with Vista about to come out soon…the world is about the have more than enough entertainment in their living room.

  4. NeoTechie

    September 18th, 2006 at 2:10 pm

    Ebay partnered with Google because Google has the clout to reach wider markets,
    and the folks at Apple are also positioning themselves to gain more from ad revenues. Apple’s thinking is, if you can’t beat them then join them. A huge percentage of Google’s revenue comes from Ads, and Apple is well acquainted of that fact. Google has perfected the art of online advertising, and they will only keep on improving and innovating.

    In short, Apple wants piece of the pie!

  5. Steve Tsuida

    September 18th, 2006 at 2:27 pm

    Well, at least there weren’t any goofy comments about competitors’ stock prices today… ;-)

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/14/zune-is-here/

  6. pwb

    September 18th, 2006 at 2:47 pm

    “This is a more than a content-sharing deal. Apple doesn’t need content per se, they need the infrastructure to cheaply / efficiently blast these bits across the globe.”

    Isn’t it the reverse? Apple has 75 movies (= little content) and Akamai (= best bit blaster in the world).

  7. mark p

    September 18th, 2006 at 2:53 pm

    Perhaps this provides a little more insight into the motivation behind Eric Schmidt (as I recall) joining the Apple BOD… Gosh.
    At one time, IBM seemed invulnerable.
    Then, Digital, with its smaller minicomputers.
    Until Microsoft owned the desktop, that is.
    And now the web is becoming the desktop and the set-top, and
    Microsoft ain’t looking so invincible.

  8. Thomas Hawk

    September 18th, 2006 at 4:22 pm

    People will not want to watch low quality non HDTV at $10-$15 a movie on their new $300 iDongle when you can get a Netflix subscription for the price of less than two movie downloads a month.

    Nor will people want to watch low res crappy Google Video content on their new $4,000 plasma (on the video iPod, laptop, handheld device, PC, etc. yes. Just not on their plasmas).

    Even with Google Video on the iDongle, it will still flop.

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....pples-itv/

  9. PXLated

    September 18th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

    Mix all this up…
    Akamai: Worldwide network
    Apple (an early investor in Akamai): wifi full-screen video iPod, wifi iTV, wifi/Voip/cell iPhone, other nifties
    Google: dark fiber, data centers. content search, ad network, wifi experiments/experience

    What do you have? An end run around everyone?
    The possibilities could be endless.

  10. mac-finance

    September 18th, 2006 at 4:47 pm

    This would be really cool, but isn’t the resolution really low on Google video? It would look like junk when upscaled for a TV or Projector…

  11. Scott Truitt

    September 18th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

    To PXLated… my point exactly. Why would either Google or Apple want to battle the other? Why not combine forces and leave everyone else in the dust?

  12. Chris Gear

    September 18th, 2006 at 5:29 pm

    An interesting move, espescially with YouTube growing as quickly as it is. Free content is what Apple will need to help iTV get off the ground quickly enough to truly beat Microsoft in the home entertainment race. Not to mention the indie crowd will want to share their “web finds” to more than just their computer geek friends. It has been proven again and again that people are interested in content over quality on the web, and quality over content in the living room. Can’t wait to see how Apple is going to tackle the low quality streaming issues- I’m sure Steve and Eric have something big up their sleeve :-)

  13. Theo

    September 18th, 2006 at 6:08 pm

    For speculation purposes, There are a number of different scenarios that could play out here. One of them being:

    Google positioning google video to be the premier destination on the web for
    consumer generated video and video search by cutting a deal with Apple to
    stream content through iTV to your TV. Now, the only thing that remains to be seen is if iTV takes off, and if it does google would enjoy a distinct advantage over all the other video services, including YouTube. Who wouldn’t want their video to be on t.v.?

  14. Dillon Thomas

    September 18th, 2006 at 7:04 pm

    I like the idea of taking all the videos I bookmark on Google Video and being able to watch them on my tv.

    Also the iTV box could have voive recognitive software to listen to tv programmes and send you content relative ads.

    If a news story mentioned say “U2″, a click could let us watch a video of U2. We could also get a search box on our tv screens controlled by the itv remote and perform on screen searches.

    Your RSS feed of Rocketboom could be fed to the iTV and played during the tv ad breaks!.

    Or if CNN was covering a story on eg: “Micorsoft Zune launch” we could with a click of a button get the view of scoble, arrington and others on that topic in text and or video.

    Or a buy now button. You like the song being played in an ad for the new Ford or GM?. You make two clicks and its downloaded onto your Mac/iPod and streamed to your tv ready to listen in full.

  15. pwb

    September 18th, 2006 at 8:43 pm

    Funny that people complain about resolution when low resolution is *the* critical attribute of YouTube that made it successful where everyone else had failed with QuickTime, Windows Media, Real and other higher quality offerings.

  16. Sameer

    September 18th, 2006 at 11:24 pm

    To pwb… the big deal about low resolution in this case is that, as others have said here, one wouldn’t want to watch pixelated low-res videos on their HD or plasma TVs. That’s just geeky to the point of being dumb!

  17. LKM

    September 19th, 2006 at 12:51 am

    >There’s no word yet whether ripped DVDs or
    >other files will be viewable through iTV.

    My bet would be on “yes.” It seems to be pretty similar in function to the FrontRow application on Macs. That app can play un-DRM’d movies. There’s really no good reason why the iTV should be able to do the same.

  18. Taylan Pince

    September 19th, 2006 at 5:32 am

    Does it even matter? Whether it will be locked up (probably) or broad open, iTV wil be cracked and hacked beyond recognition, and it will be turned into a configurable home entertainment system that can play anything you want. It’s simply a matter of time, and seeing the discussions have already started about how to do this, I don’t think it will take too long.

  19. Pro SEO

    September 19th, 2006 at 5:45 am

    Apple are really going to call it iTV? I don’t think they will be able to sell it in the UK then, We already have a TV network called ITV.

  20. Ed

    September 19th, 2006 at 6:26 am

    Marshall, you forget something. It’s not only about the professional videos. Google video also has amateurs like me. I would love to have this service. That way I can sell my amateur videos through that service instead of having to burn DVDs. Here are some simple scenarios:

    - Wedding videographers can upload and sell the videos
    - I can share my edited videos with family
    - Teens sharing their videos with each other
    - Dating service videos

    The possibilities are endless. It’s all good.

  21. Jeremy

    September 22nd, 2006 at 10:54 am

    You guys get so excited over the big guys doing this type of stuff. I’ve been watching online video content from a 10 ft UI on my $4000 tv for a few months already.

    Check out TVedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVedia

    Excerpt:
    Online service integration -
    Using TVedia, users can search and stream online videos from YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Grouper, and DivX.com. High definition content on DivX.com can also be streamed with a high speed Internet connection. Using TVedia, users can also access pictures on popular photo sharing site Flickr, and stream online radios from Live365. Its integration with Last.fm also provides music social network and recommendation service.

« Previous post
Next post »