Yahoo Fidgets With Its Widgets For Television
January 08 2010 - 3:57PM
Dow Jones News
For a peek at how televisions might connect to the Internet in
the future, take a look at Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) widget engine.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, the
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet giant announced it had signed
deals to embed its technology in microprocessors made by MIPS
Technologies Inc. (MIPS) and Sigma Designs Inc. (SIGM), whose
products are used primarily by television manufacturers.
Yahoo's technology works like a bridge between Web sites and
television screens, allowing Internet content to be rendered
correctly on displays designed for living rooms rather than
desktops. To make the widget engine more compelling, Yahoo has also
struck deals with streaming-video aggregators Brightcove Inc. and
Zeevee Inc., which offer hundreds of online video channels.
"We've opened the spigot to an endless amount of content," said
Russ Schafer, a senior director who helps oversee Yahoo's widget
project. Schafer said more televisions containing widget technology
will hit electronics showrooms throughout the year.
Whether couch potatoes will turn on the digital tap Yahoo has
created remains an open question. While the Web opens up vast
archives of streaming video, manufacturers are convinced television
viewers don't want to replicate the experience of using a laptop on
a wall-sized television and have avoided adding features, such as
Web surfing, to their products.
"I don't think anyone can seriously say they know what the next
killer app is," said Scott Smyers, chairman of Digital Living
Network Alliance, which represents makers of software that networks
home electronics.
While consumers have expressed interest in Web-enabled
televisions, what they actually use complicates the matter,
industry executives say. In Singapore, the top Internet feature
accessed by television is weather news even though the island
nation's climate rarely changes because it is so close to the
equator, said Tracy Geist, senior vice president of business
development and marketing for OpenTV Corp. (OPTV), which provides
software for Internet-enabled TVs.
Meanwhile, no one has figured out how best to make money from
Internet features delivered over televisions. Ideas have ranged
from selling ads to selling subscriptions. Yahoo is mulling a model
that makes many sites free but offers premium sites at a
subscription.
Yahoo is trying to push its widgets as an industry standard. At
CES, the company said it was opening its developers kit--the
software tools needed to make Web-based features compatible with
its widget technology--to all comers. That sets the stage for
distributing widgets via software bazaars such as Apple Inc.'s
(AAPL) App Store, which offers free and for-pay programs for its
iPhone smartphone.
Still, skepticism remains.
"We're extremely positive about the capabilities of connecting
TV to cloud," said Nick Colsey, a vice president in the U.S.
marketing arm of Sony Corp. (6758.TO, SNE), referring to
always-accessible Internet service. "But what are those
applications?"
-By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230;
ben.charny@dowjones.com
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