Google Looks to Takeover Your Living Room With Google TV

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Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is seeking to be the revolutionizing medium to the marketplace that takes down the cable and satellite companies, much as the Internet has been a near death blow to the publication industry.

Google TV is a product that will seek to couple the Internet with traditional television, making it possible for users to free themselves from the cable companies. The system will require a TV or set-top box with the Google software that would have the ability to connect to the Internet.

The system will also be controllable through the use of an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone or Android phone.

The idea of the world’s most popular search engine company getting directly into the living room is an idea that frightens the entertainment industry executives who can see the consumer ditching there $70 or more a month cable bill for the freedom of watching TV online.

If this sounds familiar, it has happened before. The Internet brought people real time news at the click of a mouse, and in turn killed the once thriving newspaper and magazine industry.

Then there is also the problem of piracy. Google has said that it will not block the access of its users to bootleg movies and TV shows on the service.

Much as the music industry suffered when the masses figured out that they do not have to pay for CDs or legal digital downloads, Google TV could allow for the adaptation of completely free TV, where the studios would not be able to control or rake in advertising dollars.

Google has said that it wants to allow for the movie studios and television networks to use its service as a conduit for harnessing the limitless storage capacity of the Internet to allow users to watch what they want when they want.

"We want to use the Internet to change the television experience," said Vincent Dureau, Google's head of TV technology. "There's no secret plan. We're not designing a rocket that's going to the moon. At the end of the day, the story's simple. We're putting a browser in the TV to enable a whole bunch of things that the studios and the networks are already doing today, but in a less disjointed fashion."

Google will seek to uses its search expertise to bring together viewing options from online services like Hulu, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) or the official website of the networks that.

"While CBS is open to discussing additional ways to distribute our content, we need to have a firmer understanding of Google's plans for monetizing the content that flows through Google TV before we accurately evaluate the opportunity," said Anthony Soohoo, senior vice president of entertainment at CBS Interactive.

The Internet is coming to television with or without Google. Apple is also rumored to be developing an update to its Apple TV, which could follow the same premise of bringing movie and TV shows to the living room via the Internet.

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