Sony chief: Google TV will return
July 6, 2011
By Colin Mann
Gildas Perriet, Managing Director Sony UK and Ireland, says Google TV will reappear in some form in the future. Sony was one of the original set suppliers following its launch at the end of 2010, prior to the service being put on hold at the end of the year, ostensibly to refine its software.
“Google TV wasn’t a great success,” he admitted to delegates at the Intellect Consumer Electronics conference. “But I’m sure it’s going to come back.” He revealed that this could possibly be in the UK. “We’re working with Google. We need to keep [Google TV] simple and seamless. “I’m sure it will resurface in some way soon.”
He also revealed that Sony was in discussions with social networking site Facebook. “They are asking us how they can monetise their subscribers.”
Perriet warned groups working on connected TV platform standards that they should not work in isolation, suggesting that the UK’s Digital Television Group and the HbbTV consortium needed to work closely together to ensure that platform technologies were not restricted to discrete parts of Europe.