Viacom piles on Google TV with MTV content ban

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Viacom piles on Google TV with MTV content ban
Michelle Clancy ©RapidTVNews | 23-11-2010

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/201011238970/viacom-piles-on-google-tv-with-mtv-content-ban.html

Google TV can now count Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon among its blocked channels, thanks to Viacom becoming the latest media giant to take a stand against the platform.

 

A cryptic "Sorry, this content is unavailable for your device," message is all that a user will encounter when trying to dial up streaming Website content from those networks' online libraries.

 

ABC, NBC, FOX and Viacom parent CBS are all blocking their online content from Google TV, meaning that the broadcast pool is dwindling for Mountain View. The networks are looking for carriage fees in return for allowing Google TV to access their online programming. The irony of course is that users from virtually any other online browser can access the same content for free via a PC or Mac.

 

At issue is the fact that Google TV uses the Android OS to embed a Web media player within a Sony television set. Google envisioned the play as an ideal melding on broadcast and Web content; the Google TV browser simply returns all manner of results for program searches, making it easier for the viewer to watch what they want, when they want it. Google TV also wraps in well-worn integrations with Netflix and Amazon.com, among others, and is in discussions with Hulu.com Plus, a premium service from FOX and NBC.

 

Broadcasters, far from seeing a viable business model for themselves, see Google TV as a convenient way to allow viewers to defect to the Web—thereby cutting out the advertising revenue from traditional broadcast, not to mention the lucrative fees studios receive from traditional pay-TV partners.

 

Piracy is another, not-small, concern.

 

 

 

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