Google TV desperate to unblock US networks
October 22, 2010
Google is trying to persuade three US television networks that have blocked access to their websites from Google TV to change their minds.
ABC, NBC and CBS have blocked their online shows from the new Google TV service. Fox is said to be considering joining them in throwing the off switch.
The Google service has been built in to Sony and Logitech TVs and was looking to roll out in the US and internationally and begin to replicate some of its $24 billion success in web search ads. But this is what worries the networks.
Google said in a statement that its new Google TV service “enables access to all the Web content you already get today on your phone and PC, but it is ultimately the content owner’s choice to restrict users from accessing their content on the platform.”
Earlier this month, Google announced that HBO would offer access to hundreds of hours of its programming to existing subscribers through Google TV, and said that Turner Broadcasting has optimized some of its most popular websites, including sites for TBS, TNT and CNN, for Google TV.