Google TV is Out!

Danny Sullivan has shared his Google TV experience. He bought a Sony Blu-ray player that is Google TV-capable for $400 at Best Buy. It seems the networks now do not want you watching content available online on your PC with a Google TV device  As another article on blocked content with Google TV says:

Google TV isn’t stripping the video off the sites. It’s not inserting its own ads into the content. It’s not knocking down firewalls, eating small children nor sacrificing animals. It’s simply letting you use a web browser, exactly as you’d use a web browser on a Windows or Mac computer.

I don’t know about you, but there has been  litigation/settlements over sites who aggregate content that was written by others. Now, this is a different scenario where Google has money to be made in the adverstising arena by simply wrapping the networks content. This seems no different than a web site that aggregates a feed they do not own on their site. Where as Netflix pays the networks for their content and charges for it, Google TV content would be a free ride for the comsumer. Marc Cuban gives you his thoughts on this fact.

Another interesting point about Google TV ‘s “open platform”  is by Mark Suster who thinks Google might impact video in a similar way the print industry has been affected by the web:

it would be an understatement to say that traditional media is skeptical about Google’s benevolence and many fear a world in which video content margins are crushed in the way that print & music have been with the primary beneficiary having been Google.

But as much as I would like to drive down to Best Buy and get the Google TV Blue Ray player, just keep in mind that Google TV is not the only game in town.