Yahoo, TV Makers Unveil Deals to Webify the Tube

TV and the Web are converging, but until recently most of the movement has come at the Internet end. Broadcast channels are increasingly putting current episodes online, and U.S. audiences for Web video were up 34% in November 2008 over the previous year, according to new metrics from comScore.

Now the other side of the equation is starting to move, with the announcement by Yahoo that it has lined up manufacturing partners who will build high-definition TVs that will let viewers access Yahoo online services directly from their big home screens.

At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday Yahoo revealed that it would work with Samsung electronics, Sony, LG Electronics and Vizio to build TV sets that can access the Yahoo Widget Channel.

The new service will use factory-installed software and the Ethernet connections used to provide cable TV to connect viewers with Yahoo TV widgets, small applications they can click while watching programming to get news, weather and finance reports from Yahoo.

Another widget will let users browse through photo’s they’ve stored on Flickr, Yahoo’s photo-sharing portal.

Among non-Yahoo content, TV audiences will also be able to click on widgets that access eBay, Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, Blockbuster, music service Rhapsody and the Web sites for CBS, the New York Times, USA Today and Showtime.

“Yahoo has combined key attributes of the Internet, including openness, community and personalization, with the power of television,” Connected TV Yahoo! Vice president Patrick Barry said in a statement. “By creating this revolutionary new Internet experience and combining our technology with the global distribution of major consumer elect5ronics partners, we enable consumers to access the relevant information and content to enhance their television-watching experience.”

In August, Yahoo and processor maker Intel announced a joint venture to create a Web-connected widget platform for set-top boxes and to build an application developer kit that would let third parties create widgets to appear on the Widget Channel.

While the early applications available through the Widget Channel are content-based, Barry was quoted last year as saying that the ultimate aim is to amass a large Web-on-TV user audience that can then be effectively tapped by online advertisers.

The Internet-enabled HDTV sets could come to market as early as spring 2009, according to Yahoo While some questions arise whether the public will be in a fiscal mood to buy such high-end electronics, a Forrester Research survey released on Monday found less consumer resistance to buying a new HDTV than to just about any other electronic device purchase. Only about half of respondents said they were less likely to spend on HDTV this year, compared to around two-thirds who said they would avoid buying a smartphone, a videogame console or a satellite radio.