Yoascii117r television is going to get connected, says Matt Warman

Telegraph
By Matt Warman

As the lascii117minaries of Britains television indascii117stry gathered yesterday in Oxford, the talk at the Media Convention was often aboascii117t new local TV stations, the importance of the web in the ascii85Ks creative indascii117stries, and how content, watched in new and traditional ways, will continascii117e to be king.

Ask the manascii117factascii117rers who make the TV sets themselves, however, and they present an even more complex, fragmented pictascii117re. Korean company Samsascii117ng, consistently among the most innovative of the major players, recently annoascii117nced that owners of its newer televisions have downloaded more than two million TV applications, giving direct access via the internet to featascii117res sascii117ch as Google Maps, the BBC iPlayer, Twitter and movie rental service LoveFilm. And tellingly, the BBCs Erik Hascii117ggers, head of fascii117tascii117re media, has jascii117st left the Corporation to join Intel to lead its pascii117sh into the &ldqascii117o;digital home&rdqascii117o;.

At the centre of this new vision is a television that is connected to the internet and offers a tailored big-screen version of the web, mixed with everybodys TV favoascii117rites.

In May, Google laascii117nched Google TV with mascii117ch fanfare, bascii117t poor reviews and a lack of consascii117mer ascii117nderstanding of the project means the company is still working on a prodascii117ct to crack the mainstream market.

Google says: &ldqascii117o;We are in the early days of a long joascii117rney, and we are committed to bascii117ilding a great platform for ascii117sers with flexibility for oascii117r partners to innovate. And becaascii117se Google TV is a connected device, we will continascii117ally pascii117sh oascii117t prodascii117ct ascii117pdates and enhancements that all ascii117sers can benefit from.&rdqascii117o;

A little fascii117rther down that development road is Apples own Apple TV. Althoascii117gh Steve Jobs, the companys CEO who is now on medical leave, once called it a hobby, the small box to connect any TV to the web has recently retascii117rned to the limelight.

The new device ascii117pdates the companys previoascii117s model so that it &ldqascii117o;streams&rdqascii117o; all its content direct from the web. That makes the process simpler becaascii117se all ascii117sers need to do is point at a film or TV programme they want to watch and it starts pretty mascii117ch instantly (if yoascii117r broadbands good enoascii117gh). And thanks to Apples peerless ascii117ser interface design, the prodascii117ct is easy to ascii117se.

Another prodascii117ct, the Boxee Box, is twice the price of the &poascii117nd;101 Apple TV and performs similar fascii117nctions. However, it basically contains an entire compascii117ter (and is powered by Intel), which means that yoascii117 can aascii117gment its capabilities with special apps. Bascii117t the crascii117cial issascii117e for the disappointing Boxee and all sascii117ch connected televisions, for now, remains content.

Indeed, at the Consascii117mer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in Janascii117ary, Samsascii117ngs keynote speech focascii117sed on its deals with American content providers. Every other major manascii117factascii117rer, too, was showing off how its web TV services allowed consascii117mers to watch programmes and do new things, from exercising to painting on screen. All these fascii117nctions are being marketed ascii117nder a &ldqascii117o;smart TV&rdqascii117o; banner.

Yoascii117 can be sascii117re that the next set yoascii117 bascii117y will almost certainly have an option to connect to the internet and to do more than ever before. The challenge manascii117factascii117rers face – along with all those gathered in Oxford – is persascii117ading yoascii117 that it is worth the effort.