Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Google is considering a move to offer paid cable-TV services to consumers. These services are traditionally provided by companies such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, DirecTV, etc. through coaxial cables, fiber optic networks, or satellite. In order for Google to provide this service, they plan to use a high-speed internet service they are planning to build in Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS. Google has hired a former TV executive, Jeremy Stern, to lead the project and has had discussions with content providers Walt Disney, Time Warner, and Discovery; however, the discussions have been exploratory in nature and no decisions have been made.
Google has been considering a move into TV for years and has launched other efforts that threaten the traditional paid-TV business model such as Google TV, a software that can be installed on TVs and set-top boxes to find and watch content from the internet, and the recently announced deals with celebrities and production companies to create 100 free ad-supported channels on YouTube.
Google’s plans to expand this paid-TV offering beyond Kansas City are unclear, but if successful this could completely transform and undermine traditional TV as we consume it today.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577016352676478994.html
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