Japanese Working On Linux TV-Killer
May 28th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Featured Story, Internet TV, Streaming Video 
Japanese electronics and telecommunications companes are developing a Linux-based TV-killer which will let users watch streaming video and browse the web using a remote.
The TV Portal Service Corp syndicate, made up of Sony, Matsushita (Panasonic), Sharp, Hitachi and Toshiba, is expected to announce a new tech standard for Internet television as early as next month. With the backing of telecommunications giant NTT, it will lobby the International Telecommunications Union to adopt it for global use.
New Standard Could Be TV-Killer
According to a Sydney Morning Herald report:
Although Japanese consumers already have access to broadband television services, they are presently required to buy television sets and receivers compatible with their internet service providers. This inconvenience will be removed by the new technology, which will enable broadband-equipped televisions to display internet content without a separate set-top box or computer.
“While many viewers in Japan currently have only seven regular TV channels available, this will all change in the future. The time will soon come when they will have access to an unlimited variety of video content in their living rooms.”
Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based blogger with connections to Japan’s electronics industry, believes the new system will encourage dynamic start-up companies to offer online news, current affairs and commentary in competition with more staid mainstream media. Although the proliferation of such sites might be impeded by a government proposal to regulate internet content from 2010, there will nonetheless be “a clear disruption for the Japanese TV industry,” Mr Toto said.
“The new system, in theory, paves the way for many, many more ‘independent’ programs to offer their content to Japanese users without asking for a broadcast license by a government agency.
Internet televisions could radically transform television.
As televisions gain Internet features, interest in cable programming could plummet. It could also help level the playing field for indie video creators, making it easier than ever for people to view Internet videos on their TVs.
The new television could be on sale as early as next March.
Image: James Good
Why all the panic about cable and satellite and terrestrial being wiped out by the internet? It seems to be around a lot these days. What?, the big broadcasters are going to disappear when this happens or more likely they will migrate to the new tech and the spectrum freed up by this move will be sucked up by the internet for faster broader connections to actually bring this content to our homes, offices and mobiles? At the same time new broadcasters will emerge from the realms of the podcast and vlog and compete on a perhaps skewed playing field….but at least they will be on the pitch and that money will be shared out more, giving space to more perspectives on the world. yes?