While 290 million individual Americans (or 114.7 million American homes) own a television set. In contrast, the number of people online in the USA is only 211 million, the number of users above 13 years of age accessing the mobile Web is 116 million.

Interestingly, the number of individuals working on a laptop or desktop computer is about 192 million, while the number of consumers with a mobile phone is 232 million. Through these stats, one could infer that almost 20 million users access the Internet exclusively via a mobile device and the scope of growth for mobile Internet access far exceeds that for the wired Internet.

288 million users watch traditional TV while 143 watch it through the internet. 111 million users use time-shifted TV and 30 million users watch TV on their mobiles. While traditional television viewership is still higher than mobile ownership, this number could fall over time.

Having multiple TV connections in a home is growing increasingly common, with over 35.9 US homes having four or more TV sets, 28.3 million having 3 sets each, 32.7 million having 2 sets each and only 17.7 million having just one TV set.

57% of mobile users have feature phones while 43% have smart phones. This means that only 43% of the current US mobile user base is able to substitute mobile TV for traditional viewing. Android remains the most popular smartphone operating system with 43% of the market share followed by the iPhone with 28% and RIM Blackberry having 18%.

Users in the over-65 years age group watch the most amount of TV averaging 46 hours and 16 minutes per week, while those in the 12 to 17 years category watch the least with an average of only 22 hours and 24 minutes per week.

Among mobile video users, YouTube is the most popular channel followed by FOX and ABC. The Facebook and Twitter apps are more common among women, while Google+ is more popular among men for some reason.

On a worldwide scale, it was found that while devices such as HD TV, 3D TV, Internet-connected TV, smartphones and tablets are already quite popular, a substantial number of other consumers are still at the stage of planning to get these devices in the near future. So, the market for different forms of electronic devices continues to be very exciting, and can be expected to grow still further.

Internet-enabled TV from Google are expected to be available in the UK within the next six months. The Google TV products allow users to switch between the Internet and television channels seamlessly on the same screen. Users will not be required to change any cables to change from the Internet to TV or vice-versa.

Surfing the Web on Google TV

Users will be able to use their smartphone as a remote control. A special YouTube channel in high definition will also be available to them. Other services such as the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4 On Demand and all of the IPTV services will also be accessible directly on the main TV screen.

According to the Telegraph, this facility will be available to users only through the special set-top box. It is possible that manufacturers will start selling TV sets with the functionality built in soon after, if initial demand for the product is high. However, if the success of the product in the USA is an indicator, we might need to wait a while before we see Google integrated TV sets being manufactured for the UK market.

Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, is expected to make a formal announcement about the launch during this year’s MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

One of the problems expected with this service, though, is that the amount of bandwidth required for such facilities is very high.

In effect, users will now be able to use Skype software to make video calls using a set-top box and a special remote control.  The remote control will also have a keyboard, allowing users to chat. It will not matter whether the other party is using a phone, a computer or a TV to make the call.

Skype-enabled TV sets have already been available in the market since about a year.  However, this is the first time a cable network operator will offer such a facility.

The trial of this new scheme is expected to start in a few months’ time. Details regarding the cost of the software involved are not yet available. However, it is reasonable to assume, that it would cost less than a Skype-enabled TV.

Once the service is functional, when users receives a call, they will be able to view the caller ID and decide whether they want to talk with the caller, have a video conference or just chat. The service will allow users to make low cost Internet video calls while watching programmes on television.

This deal has come following the recent purchase of Skype by Microsoft for a record $8.5 billion. It will also renew user interest in cable TV connections, possibly reversing the trend among users to switch away from traditional cable to other options such as Netflix, Hulu and other Web-based services.

For quite some time now, YouTube has been one of the most popular sites on the Internet and provides its users with a variety of content ranging from personally made videos to sporting events, live concerts, breaking news and a lot more.

They have now expanded this service by tying up with some major Hollywood studios to roll out about 3,000 titles for rental in due course of time. These movies will be accompanied by reviews from popular movie rating site Rotten Tomatoes and behind-the-scenes information.

New releases for rent on YouTube Movies

Some of the major studios that have agreed to tie-up with YouTube for this service include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros, Universal pictures and Lionsgate.

Older movies such as ‘Good Fellas’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ will be available for a lower fee of $2.99. New releases such as ‘Inception’ and ‘The King’s Speech’ will be charged at $3.99. Movies that were previously offered for free will remain free to view on the new service as well.

This service is expected directly compete with sites such as Netflix and Redbox. However, these sites are currently priced a lot cheaper than YouTube, and so YouTube might eventually have to rethink their pricing strategy, which currently seems closer to old-fashioned rental services such as Blockbuster.

Expanded movie rental services from YouTube will help to further consolidate the video-sharing site’s position in the market, while at the same time narrowing the gap between online video and television.

This service has only been started in the U.S. as of now, and it will serve their 105 million customers. Once Google expands this service and realigns prices in other regions such as Europe and Asia, they could make it a real success as online rental services are not very popular there and theirs would be the only popular service to offer immediate legitimate streaming movies.

Happy Feet movie rental page with reviews, previews and related videos

This is the first nationally broadcast television ad for the Chrome browser. It is a 91-second ad and was aired during the popular US television series, Glee.

Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Digg users have been sharing the video widely since its release just 3 days ago, generating almost half a million views on YouTube and a lot of discussion for and against it.

This isn’t the first time that Google has shown a definite pro-gay bias. They were pretty vocal about their stance on gay marriage too, when Proposition 8 was up for debate in California. However, this is the first time such a large corporation has launched a major product ad campaign on the back of a strong pro-gay and pro-equality stance.

Everyone from the President of the U.S.A, Barack Obama, to Lady Gaga, to regular gay and heterosxual users have posted messages supporting the campaign and voicing their solidarity with the gay community. A similar campaign in the U.K, called “It Gets Better Today”, featured Prime Minister David Cameron and the Home Secretary, Theresa May.

Well known writer and columnist, Dan Savage, who used to play agony uncle to gays through his column ‘Savage Love’ had first started this campaign. He used it as a means to encourage teenagers that life does indeed get better, by referring to his personal experiences with his partner, Terry. His original video has been viewed well over a million times.

He had said then, “When a gay teenager commits suicide, it’s because he can’t picture a life for himself that’s filled with joy and family and pleasure and is worth sticking around for. So I felt it was really important that, as gay adults, we show them that our lives are good and happy and healthy and that there’s a life worth sticking around for after high school.”

This campaign is especially thoughtful as it seeks to help youngsters who need to come to terms with their so called “different” preferences, and deal with their family friends and colleagues who may have a lot of prejudices towards them and can end up hurting or being mean to them at a very delicate phase of their lives.

At the same time,  this ad will help Chrome to compete with its competitors, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, which currently have a much larger market share than Chrome.

The online advertising behemoth had announced a partnership with SpotMixer, back in January 2009, in order to help AdWords and TV advertisers, to create video ad for free. They have now extended this partnership and integrated the SpotMixer service further into Google TV Ads and Google AdWords.

SpotMixer is a tool that allows advertisers to create their own ad directly, through their AdWords campaign. These ads can be displayed on Google TV and on Google’s display network including the very popular video-sharing site, YouTube. Ads can then be shown as often as the advertiser chooses.

Creating video ads on Google AdWords via SpotMixer

This is a very useful move, considering the fact that video viewing is on the rise, as people look for information and entertainment through various devices such as TV, desktops and mobile phones.

In the U.S. the average user is now watching videos for 4 hours a month, which represents a year-on-year increase of 45%.

Existing text ads are converted into a video or TV ad with the help of templates for pacing, transition, design etc. A collection of music, videos and images is also available to choose from, if customers do not have their own content.

For those who already have a video ad, they can upload it onto SpotMixer and have it edited to improve it. Advertisers can also customise their ads to suit different demographics, if they wish to do so. They can also make ads of different lengths and display them as appropriate.

Tracking the performance of each ad is possible by simply providing different contact telephone numbers and destination URLs.

The largest spending was seen in November ($14.5 billion) and December ($18.1 billion). Cyber Monday – the first Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday – broke all records with $1.028 billion being spent in a single day.

Among electronic items, flat panel TVs and mobile devices were the fastest selling, followed by computer hardware.

Online Consumers

Group buying through sites such as Groupon and Living Social gained tremendous popularity during the year. Social networks also continued to grow. Facebook became the number 1 site in August 2010, for time spent online, beating sites like Google and Yahoo! It now accounts for 12.3% of the total time spent online in The U.S.

The amount of time spent on leisure activities online also grew in 2010. Portals represented 20.2% of the share of time spent online, while social networks accounted for 14.4% and entertainment sites for 12.6%.

Social Networks

The growth of social media caused web-based email usage to reduce from 12.5% to 11.0%, especially among the younger generation. Social networking accounts for 14.4% of all time spent online, but its share much higher for youngsters. Women also tend to spend more time on social networks than men.

Facebook also now accounts for 10% of the U.S. page views and has gained millions of new users. MySpace, on the other hand, has seen a sharp decline, losing 27% of its users. LinkedIn, Twitter and several new social sites continue to grow gradually. While it has lost some users in the 35-54 years demographic, the number of users below 18 years and above 55 years have grown significantly. On the other hand, Twitter saw maximum gain in the 18-34 years demographic.

Search Marketing

The search market has also seen innovation with the introduction of instant search by Google. Google continues to be the market leader in the States, with over 60% of the market share, while Yahoo! had 16% and Microsoft had 12% in December 2010. ‘Facebook’ was the most searched term, with 1.9 billion queries in 2010, followed by ‘YouTube’ with 790.7 million searches.

Online advertising has grown by 23% between December 2009 and 2010. Leading brands have now started reallocating a larger share of their ad spend to online advertising. Over 1 trillion display ads were shown on Facebook and 529.4 billion ads on Yahoo! The strategies being used for display as have also improved resulting in better user response especially through retargeting. The online video and TV market are also growing, which is a fact that advertisers should take note of.

Google TV allows users to access the Web as well as their regular television programmes on a regular television set. The new product not only allows users to watch TV programmes, but also other content that has been developed by creators, programmers, developers and advertisers for bigger screens.

Users can navigate to thousands of websites to watch their favourite videos, view photos, chat with friends, watch movies and play games on their TV screens. They can also choose from a wide variety of applications that are currently being developed specifically for Google TV.

Apps for Google TV

One of the main reasons why Google has concentrated their efforts towards TV is the fact that the medium is used by an estimated 5 billion people worldwide, which is far more than the number of people using mobile phones or computers.

Many of Google’s existing partners are developing new ways to monetise their service offerings through this new medium. Some of these partners include:

• Turner Broadcasting – are optimising their popular channels including TBS, TNT and CNN
• NBC Universal – working on CNBC Real-Time to allow users to follow financial news and keep tabs on the stock market
• HBO – developing HBOGO, which will allow users to access HBO content, at their convenience, through an enhanced website for Google TV
• NBA – developed an application, NBA Game Time, to allow users to follow game scores in real-time and also view highlights at their convenience in HD.

Sites such as Amazon Video On Demand and Netflix also offer thousands of movies for streaming rental or purchase to download through Google TV. Technology and media companies such as The New York Times, USA Today, Napster and VEVO are also optimising their content for TV.

A newly launched website provides information about the new features and applications available on Google TV:
www.google.com/tv

Google TV can be accessed on any ordinary television set via a set-top box, similar to the device cable TV companies provide or via special new television sets that already have the functionality in-built and are due for launch later this year. Users will be able to purchase the Google TV set-top box from Logitech, along with a number of accessories such as remote controls and video / Web cameras.

Introducing Sony Internet TV with Google TV

Talking To Your TV

Instead of a remote control, users will also be able to control their Google TV sets through any Android mobile phone or iPhone. They will also be able to use voice search functionality, which means we might soon find scores of people talking to their television sets!

Users will be able to move between TV and the Web easily and will also be able to watch both simultaneously.

“I Gotta Feeling” was released by the band in the beginning of June last year, was at the top of the charts for 2 weeks and then continued to remain in the top 40 for a total of 33 weeks.

The Black Eyed Peas also hold the record for the maximum number of downloads by a single group – a total of 3.3 million, in the U.K.

Martin Talbot, Managing Director of The Official UK Charts Company, says that this is a very significant milestone. While the industry started recognising the importance of downloads as far back as 2005, by counting them as part of the singles charts, this is the first time that a song has actually been legally downloaded so many times.

Initially, downloads were counted only after a CD was made physically available in shops. One year later, the rules were changed, and downloads started getting counted even without a CD release.

Now, 98% of all singles’ sales are through downloads. However, according to record company executives, the easy availability of downloads is only adding to the problem of online piracy, which results in the loss of millions of pounds of revenue to the record companies every year.

While this might be mixed news to the record company, it definitely marks a continued change in the way the U.K. public consumes media. Digital definitely seems to be the way forward. The record companies need to catch up with the rest of the business world and start building a more digital media friendly business model.

Google TV

The biggest single announcement at Google I/O was probably the launch of Google TV, which is an open platform built on Android and meant to run on the Google Chrome browser.

Google TV will enable users to access the shows they want to, when they want to, on their television screens. Google TV features integrated search to allow users to find relevant content across channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously. With this service, Google undoubtedly has its eyes set on the $70 billion U.S. TV advertising market. Google TV enabled devices will go on sale in autumn 2010.

www.google.com/tv

Clicker TV

Google also introduced Clicker TV, which is basically a TV guide that allows users to find programmes by scrolling through the options with a remote control or arrow keys on a keyboard. The Clicker TV website can work on any browser and will be a free service in the U.S.

Android 2.2 (Froyo)

Android 2.2, which has been nicknamed Froyo (from Frozen Yoghurt), was also announced at the event. The new version of the platform will be much faster, will have new enterprise features such as Exchange calendar synchronisation and will include portable hotspot functionality, the ability for apps to participate in device messaging and data backup and will support Adobe Flash.

Google Wave

Google Wave has been brought out of beta and is now available to everyone. It is supposed to now be much faster and easier to use than before.

Chrome Web Store

The Chrome Web Store is scheduled for launch later this year and will be an open marketplace for Web apps. Google Chrome and the Chrome Web Store will support installable web apps. Applications from the Chrome Web Store will allow users to install their favorite web apps. An installed web app could be separated visually from other tabs, could integrate better with the operating system and could be granted increased permissions.

chrome.google.com/webstore

Storage for Developers

Google Storage for Developers, a new service also announced at the I/O event, is a RESTful cloud service built on Google’s storage and networking infrastructure. With the API, developers can connect their applications to reliable cloud-based storage that is replicated across several U.S. data centres. This service is being previewed with only a few developers initially.

It is believed that over 3,000 developers will attend Google’s annual I/O conference to be held in San Francisco on the 19th and 20th of this month. Google might introduce their new technology at the event, so that developers can start developing apps for Google’s TV platform.

Google’s new technology is meant to allow set-top boxes and new television sets to draw more content from the Internet.

Sony, Intel and Logitech are already believed to have shown an interest in Google’s offering, though nothing has been confirmed as yet. Even more rumours claim that Sony has already agreed to use Intel’s Atom chip in some of their future products in order to give them similar functionality to netbooks.

If developers take an interest in this platform, the market could soon be flooded with apps for TV, just as it is for smartphones. Hardware manufacturers will need to commit to the technology first, though.

Google is also conducting a limited search service with the Dish Network, according to some reports. This service will enable users to search for various TV programmes on the Internet.

If Google’s entry into the television market is successful, it will provide a lot of value-based content to viewers, while Google will drive more ad revenues via a whole new medium. It could also bring down the package prices of other cable providers, thus making it a win-win situation for both Google and the user.

Users access various social activities such as social networks, blogs reading a message board etcetera at least once a week. However the site which has really done very well for itself, is without a doubt Facebook.

According to the Nielsen report, commissioned by women-focused blog network BlogHer and NBCU’s iVillage, Facebook is now catching up with TV in terms of popularity in the U.S.

While 55% of the population is believed to watch TV daily, 47% of the population visits Facebook daily. In fact, Facebook is now much more popular than other channels of information and entertainment such as radio and newspapers, which are accessed by 37% and 22% of the population respectively.

One of the major factors which draws people to Facebook, could be social gaming. Nielsen reports that 32.7 million people are now playing social games like Farmville daily. This figure is equal to the number of daily newspaper readers and double the number of magazine readers.

Other forms of social media such as blogs are not so popular, however, and attract only 11% of web users daily.

Usage patterns have changed considerably compared to what they were just one year ago. In the last quarter of 2008, Nielsen found that users accessed the Internet while watching TV for almost two and a half hours every month, and almost 57.5% of TV viewers used the Internet and television simultaneously at least once a month.

One year later, in the last quarter of 2009, Nielsen found that the amount of time U.S. users spent on the Internet while watching TV had grown to three and a half hours every month, and almost 60% of TV viewers used the Internet and television simultaneously at least once a month.

Fears that TV viewing would reduce drastically due to the growing popularity of the Internet and mobile videos seem to have been unfounded. TV viewing has actually grown steadily along with the Internet. One of the reasons for this could be access to DVRs, which allow users to watch their favourite TV programmes at their convenience.

DVR systems are now found in 35% of all American homes and are growing in popularity. Viewers between the ages of 25 and 34 watch time shifted TV for about three and a half hours every week while those over 65 years of age do so for just over an hour.

Online video usage has also gone up by 16% in the last year, and surprisingly, almost 44% of online video viewing is done at work.

The number of active mobile video watchers has also gone up from 11.2 million to 17.6 million, which is a rise of 57% between the last quarter of 2008 and the last quarter of 2009.

According to Jessica Vascellaro of The Wall Street Journal, the new search service will run on set-top boxes and will allow users to search for TV shows and Web content, including YouTube videos.

Dish Network, which is currently the second largest satellite TV provider in the U.S., will allow Google to offer TV searches of a very high quality to its viewers. In return, Google will be able to drive more advertising revenues as subscribers are bound to see its display ads while conducting searches.

The service will make use of some features from Google’s Android Operating System. New set-top boxes will have to be loaded with Google software and Dish Network subscribers will be able to search content and even create their own show line up or playlist using a keyboard.

The service is already being tested by families of Google employees.

Studies have shown that more and more users are interested in viewing online content on their large-screen TV sets. Some companies like Apple, Yahoo! and Microsoft already offer similar services.

One hurdle that Google will have to overcome is that users will need new set-top boxes, and they may not want to spend money on them. Google will have to devise some enticing offers to encourage users to get a new set-top boxes.

The Internet mobility company Novarra, has released data that clearly highlights this fact. According to Novarra, mobile page views of sites related to the X-Factor went up by 15,000 percent between September and December, and they reached a peak during the final.

Incidentally, mobile traffic and page views also peaked every Saturday and Sunday when the live weekly show and eviction were being held.

During the final, which was held on 13th December, 19 million people watched the show and 10 million votes were sent in. The mobile page views also went up by 55 percent compared to the previous week, and were the highest recorded during the entire duration of the reality show.

Mobile Web users also seemed to have clear favourites. Contrary to expectations ‘Jedward’ did not generate much traffic, and in fact the popularity of the show increased after their exit by 122 percent, and a further 85 percent the week after that.

The second highest page views, on the other hand, were recorded on Sunday 25th October when early favorite Danyl Johnson struggled to get through.

These findings could make a clearly case for the popularity of the mobile Internet. However, Novarra has not released any absolute numbers. Hence, we don’t actually know if the 15,000% mobile traffic increase they’re referring to was just a jump from 1 page view to 15,000 page views or something more significant.

The study was conducted over a period of three months tracked 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs, and a total of 90 million articles in order to arrive at their conclusions.

Twitter’s speed of news propogation has led to a feeling among the public that the days of the traditional media might now be numbered, and may soon become useless.

The Cornell University study has revealed that most of the time it is old or traditional media, represented by professional journalists, that first notices and reports a story, which is then eventually filtered down and propogated via the Internet.

In fact, the study finds that the mainstream media usually reports a story 2.5 hours before it shows up on blogs, in most cases. The graph below illustrates the fact plainly.

Source: Research from Cornell University Department of CS

There are a few exceptions to the rule, of course, when a story is first reported on the net and later through the traditional media. That happens only about 3.5% of the time though, according to the findings of the study.

What actually causes the misconception, that the web is faster than the traditional media, could be the fact that news once received, spreads much faster through the Internet than it does through the traditional media.

Read the full Cornell University study (PDF 527 kB)

Studies conducted by The Pew Internet and American Life Project have found that only 65% of teens use social websites nowadays, as opposed to 78% who play online games.

Not too long ago, social networks were the hot favorite among this age group, along with email, which was used by 89% of teennagers at that time.

The latest trend, however, is to use text messaging and instant messaging instead of email, which is now used by only 73% of teenagers.

Significantly, young adults between the ages of 18 and 32 seem to be following the reverse trend, with only 50% of them playing games online while 67% access social networks.

Surprisingly though, it was found that only 10% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 years spend time in virtual worlds, which is almost the same percentage as was found a few years ago, and hardly 2-3% of the older generation do so.

Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy Survey found that another victim of the changing times was the good old television. Studies reveal that those between 14 and 25 years of age are far more likely to use their PC for entertainment through games, music and social networks, than to sit and watch TV. This study was conducted across U.K., U.S.A., Germany, Japan and Brazil.

Searching and downloading music was the most accessed facility on the internet with 80% of youngsters using it while 73% access chat rooms social networks and message boards. It was also found that 59% of the youth use their mobile phones for entertainment, and the amount of time spent watching television is about one-third less than that spent by other age groups.

As far as advertising power goes, however, it was found that TV is the most influential for youth, followed by magazines, online ads and newspaper ads, while radio ads are fifth in line.

• Pew Internet Report: Adults & Social Network Websites
• Pew Internet Report: Adults & Video Games

One of the first event videos to feature this service, was Barack Obama’s speech when he was sworn in as the 44^th President of the U.S.A. Users who visited the Change.Gov channel on YouTube were allowed to play as well as download the proceedings of the day, from a “click to download” link on the bottom left hand corner of the video.

Obama at the Lincoln Memorial

At present, the service only allows downloads from YouTube but not from videos embedded on other sites. This could change in the future though.

By officially allowing downloads from the site, YouTube will be able to further fortify their position in the video-sharing market. This facility will, of course, be free of charge.

In the last few weeks, the subsidiary of Google has gained in importance as Google’s own online video portal Google Video has announced that they will stop accepting new uploads.

Google is also trying to further augment their income through the video-sharing site, and in order to achieve this they have just launched a series of revamped home page ads and will also expand the library of videos available to download. Last month YouTube had also launched a new High Definition section on their site.

The decision to allow downloads of their videos will give a lot of portability to YouTube, or in other words, users will be able to access these videos on all types of screens including computers, televisions and portable media players, even in the absence of an Internet connection.

Google has forged into a new deal with online video advertising company, SpotMixer, that allows advertisers to use SpotMixer’s video creation technology to create television commercials for their products free of cost, and then air them on TV as well as online.

Ads can be made either in the form of images, audio and / or video content selected from a vast database provided by Google, or from the advertisers’ own uploaded content. There is also an adjustable soundtrack so that advertisers can record the ad in a voice of their choice if they so desire.

The service can be accessed from the “Submit Ad” page when creating a Google TV ads campaign. Google has provided the short video clip shown below to teach advertisers how to use this service.

Creating a new TV ad with the tool is quite a simple procedure really. After logging into the AdWords account, users have to select an appropriate categories for the industry concerned or the type of product to be advertised and then select from relevant images, audio or video content using a drag and drop interface. Advertisers can customise the ad to their requirement by clicking the link to “Add more images and video”. They can also dynamically change the templates to give the ad a more personal look. Completed ads need to be downloaded and then added to the TV Ads Campaign.

This is a great idea for a cheap, do-it-yourself system to advertise products and service to a wide audience. It should help start-ups with limited budgets advertise on television alongside big brands without needing to spend a lot on ad production. The service was launched in beta back in September 2008, for a few clients and they are already reporting positive feedback.

During the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas this month, all the major television manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG introduced modified TV models with Web built in access. Different sets contain different facilities such as Yahoo! Widgets, MySpace or other social networking capabilities, built in Netflix and so on.

Samsung is likely to be the first company to introduce the Connected TV by this summer.

Manufacturers are hopeful that having the components of the Web integrated into the television sets will encourage users to adopt the “Connected TV” technology.

Yahoo! Widgets, for one, will not only give users access to Yahoo! content but will also allow developers to build new widgets that consumers can add. Several new widgets are likely to be introduced in the near future.

Another interesting feature to be added soon will be a Twitter widget, which will allow users to send messages to each other through the TV itself.

The MySpace widget is also generating a lot of interest as it will enable social networking between friends, while watching a TV show. Users in different locations will be able to watch the same TV program and interact with each other via comments and pictures, as though they were sitting in the same room.

Yahoo! Connected TV widgets

ReadWriteWeb reports that most of the widgets will be funded by advertising.

The Connected TV has an Ethernet port at the back, and users can directly plug the DSL connection into the TV to access the Internet.

Since the Connected TV will be controlled with just a handy remote control, rather than the set top box and keyboard, and will have many new features to it, it is more likely that the concept will appeal to users this time around.

Screenshot from Samsung Connected TV demo

This news comes in spite of the fact that the total amount of money being spent on advertising across the various forms of media, such as print, television and radio is expected to go down.

Media communications company, Carat, has estimated that the budgets allocated to online advertising will go up, by 23.7% in this fiscal year, and 18.6% next year. In other words, the Internet will account for 8.6% of the total revenue allocated to advertising this year, and 9.8% next year.

An important cause for this could be the change in loyalty of consumers, from the older forms of media to Internet and mobile. However, it is more likely that the increased level of accountability offered by search marketing makes it more attractive than other media formats, especially during times of economic uncertainty.

Another report released by StrategyEye Digital Media also indicates that in spite of the general down-sizing in advertising, Internet and social media advertising will continue to remain strong.

StrategyEye surveyed over 200 decisionmakers in dominant companies across the digital media sector. The survey found that 60% and 56% of respondents are likely to invest more in social media and mobile respectively. 87% of those surveyed felt that online advertising gave better results than other form of advertising.

While almost 62% of advertisers using traditional media plan to cut down these budgets, 52% of advertisers using online plan to increase their budgets and only 13% of them will reduce online ad budgets.

Most advertisers are of the opinion that online advertising presents a great opportunity. Many companies plan to spend more on digital media at the expense of traditional media. Mobile advertising is doing very well presently, and is expected to continue doing so. Online TV is also believed to be a great opportunity in the future.

The most surprising result of the survey, though, was the general opinion that investing in social media is perceived to be a good move, in spite of the relative reluctance shown by most brands to invest in the space.

Having a well balanced mix of online advertising, mobile advertising, online TV and social media might be the most effective strategy for 2009.

A range of widgets will be made available at the bottom of new TV screens manufactured using this new technology. The widgets will be accessible via a button on the TV remote. The docket that appears on the screen will contain various web applications, from which viewers can select the one that they wish to use, while the TV program continues to run alongside.

Users will now be able to perform various actions, such as accessing their favorite websites, watching movies on demand, and getting information about the weather, stock markets and more, directly on the television set, by simply using the remote controller.

The innovations come from Intel, in association with Yahoo!, in the form of a “Widget Channel”. According to ZDNet, this is an open, widget-based platform for the development of applications on television.

These widgets run along the bottom of the TV screen, just like the ribbon that runs headlines along the bottom on news channels. When a viewer clicks on a particular widget, a side bar appears, with various options to choose from. It is a very simple process really, just like operating the remote, for selecting various channels or settings of the TV.

Combining the television and Internet industries will be made possible by a new chip, the Intel Media Processor C3100, which is a very versatile piece of technology, capable of several functions at the same time.

“We plan to combine the Internet benefits of open user choice, community, and personalization with the performance and scale embodied in the Intel Architecture to transform traditional TV into something bigger, better and more exciting than ever before”, says Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life at Yahoo!

“Intel Media Play” technology powers this service and all the new applications, and will also be capable of running other software, such as Java, XML, HTML and Adobe Flash. Details can be found on the Connected TV site:

connectedtv.yahoo.com/

Browsers, the computer desktop and mobile phones have been the sites where the three technology giants, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have already fought for supremacy. The household television set seems to be the next battleground. Google has already invaded the space via TV ads and now the Google Media Server.

Yahoo!’s latest announcement has definitely stepped up the game. How and whether they can actually deliver a product that captures the minds and hearts of millions of TV viewers worldwide remains to be seen. If they do, though, they could tip the balance of power in their favour once more, as TV remains the only other media format that continues to attract as many, if not more viewers (and potential ad impressions) than the Internet.

This new UPnP driven gadget makes it possible for users to interconnect their computers and the TV by storing movies, videos and images on the computer and then watching them on the big screen at their convenience.

Free and commercial software packages are available, to store such data on a hard drive and then watch it on television later. This will be yet another step by Google to combat the popularity of its rival Microsoft. This is their first product offering that goes up against the extremely popular Windows Media Player.

This device will contain technology to find and then send images and videos from the computer to UPnP compatible hardware. Google Media Server will use technology from Google Desktop, such as desktop gadgets, and Google Desktop Search to locate files.

Google loyalists will surely be enthralled by this new package. The setup only require Google Desktop on the PC and a UPnP enabled device such as a Sony PlayStation 3. More information can be found on the Google Gadgets web page:

Google Media Server

According to market research, 37% of people who conduct online searches, do so after seeing a new product being advertised on the TV. Pinny Cohen reports that television has a 98% reach across the U.S.A. and is watched by 112 million households across the country.

TV advertising services on Google AdWords will provide a higher level of accountability than most television advertisers are used to, but not as good as the level of accountability and ROI tracking that online advertisers using Google AdWords expect. The service will include tools to provide data and functionality such as:

1. Reports on the number of times an ad was aired
2. Setting CPM rates to out-bid others for a slot
3. Running national, local and demographically based TV ad campaigns
4. Selecting the time day and network to run the ad on
5. Estimates of the number of people who see the ad
6. Approximations of the average length of time for which the ad is seen, and
7. Determining at what point viewers lost interest in an ad.

To avail of this facility, though, advertisers will first need to create an ad for television. This in itself could automatically exclude a large number of small and medium businesses. Google has, however, set up an ‘Ad Creation Marketplace’, which offers professional help in various departments such as, script writing, editing, voice-overs and filming at reasonable rates. Advertisers can ask for quotations from the various specialists registered on the marketplace and then decide whom to work with. As a special incentive to promote this service, Google will subsidise costs, upto $2,000 per ad, for the creation of ads through the Ad Creation Marketplace initially.

Once the ad is ready the advertiser can choose the networks and timing for display of the ads. TV ads will offer information about audience demographics in order to help advertisers maximise the impact and reach their target audience. A free customised campaign will also be available on request. Advertisers will also be able choose to run the ads during broadcasts that are related to their products or services.

Advertisers who promote their products and services using Google TV ads will be able to decide the maximum cost-per-thousand impressions that they are willing to pay, and pay only when the ads are aired. Google will hold online seminars, featuring experts from TV advertising and AdWords speaking, to help advertisers to convert viewers into clients. Advertisers who have already worked successfully with Google TV Ads will also give tips on how to maximise advertiser earning potential.

Get started with Google TV Ads

These proposals have not yet been finalised, but The Register reports that they are in line with EU Audiovisual Directives issued last year.

Current rules allow channels like ITV1, GMTV, Channel 4 and Five only 7 minutes of advertising per hour, with only one break in a show of half an hour, and two breaks during a show of one hour duration with a minimum interval of 20 minutes between two consecutive ad breaks.

The new guidelines proposed will allow channels to include 2 ad breaks during a half hour program. Also, the mandatory 20 minute interval between breaks will be abolished to allow the break to be inserted at a convenient point during the program. An ad break will be allowed every 30 minutes, instead of the current 45 minute interval while broadcasting movies.

Read the Ofcom press release

The statement released by Ofcom implies that while viewers opinions and concerns are important and will be welcomed, they are bound to take into account the revenue generated by advertising in order to pay for the choice of television services viewers are able to enjoy.

Commercial broadcasters are very much in favor of these changes as TV advertising revenues have been falling in proportion to the increase in number of users of the Web. Paradoxically, however, it is very likely that longer and more frequent ad breaks on TV may drive more viewers to the Web, eventually leaving them with even fewer viewers.

If things work out well, broadcasters and large companies as well as small and medium businesseses will benefit from the new laws. The increased advertising opportunities would allow brands additional opportunities to reach viewers, also earning the broadcasters additional revenue. Some viewers, though, might abandon TV for the Internet. SME advertisers could then reach these consumers through online ads that are typically cheaper than TV.

However, if viewers respond badly to too many ads, both the brand owners and broadcasters could incur heavy losses as viewers look upon the ads and their associated products negatively.
Ofcom will take a final decision on these regulations and implement them by 1st January 2009.

Matsushita is the world’s largest manufacturer of plasma televisions, trading under the brand name Panasonic. The consumer electronics giant will launch flat panel television sets that let users access YouTube and Google Picasa web albums on the Internet through their television sets via a button on the remote control. This will be a free service.

The first of these television sets will be launched in the U.S. some time in spring this year. A decision regarding the global launch will be taken later depending on the response in the U.S. Though this is not the first time users will be able to access the Internet through a television set (Sony already has a similar deal with CBS and some others), it is a first for Google.

If Google and Panasonic succeed in manufacturing television sets that allow internet access without significantly raising the cost of TV sets they are likely to capture a large portion of the market. This would give Google a foothold in television advertising and allow them to test the market. The move will also strengthen YouTube’s position in the highly competitive offline entertainment market.

Rumour has it that Google may create an open-source hardware platform for television and attract developers to build applications on top of it. As usual, Google will not comment on any such rumour, but speculation has already stirred up the blogosphere once again.

The existence of Google TV Ads has been public knowledge since March 2007. Google TV Ads is currently in closed beta and allows advertisers to buy spots via Echostar’s Dish network. Advertisers receive second-by-second data about viewership data.

Google TV Ads

Vincent Dureau, the head of Google’s TV technology team says, “We are confident we are going to revive the television advertising industry by bringing new advertising to it.”

The prospects are very promising, but till Google officially announces their plans, all predictions about their intentions for TV advertising are nothing more than mere speculation.