The industry has been trying to bring IPTV to your TV since 1997. What makes Google and its partners think they'll be successful?

GOOGLE TV: BOOM OR BUST

By: Tim Bajarin (10.18.2010)

The industry has been trying to bring IPTV to your TV since 1997. What makes Google and its partners think they'll be successful?

I have a question for you. Do you want to view the Internet on your TV? With all of the activity in IPTV these days, this is one of the key questions that is at the heart of whether IPTV eventually succeeds or fails. Since TVs were invented, we have been trained to sit in front of them and consume not interact with them. And only recently have we had to multitask with our TV. Even though we've had picture in picture for years, it took news scrolls at the bottom of our TV screens to train our brains. So, how will consumers integrate the new and even more complex IPTV features into their TV viewing experience?

One of the traits of consumers that has emboldened the IPTV crowd to push forward is the fact that many people sit on their couch and use their laptops or tablets while watching TV. They reason that if they multi-task in this fashion, they may be willing do it on the bigger screen. While I accept the fact that people may want Internet content, such as movies, TV shows, YouTube, etc. on their TV screens, it is quite a leap to assume that people also want to read their newspapers and magazines or view Web sites on a big-screen TV.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370894,00.asp, accessed on November 4, 2010.