Fox Joins NBC, ABC, and CBS in Google TV Denial

From DailyTech: The big four of the broadcast television world -- ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox -- have now united in their opposition of Google TV. Google TV, currently available on select new Sony televisions, allows users to navigate the internet. But the big TV networks have banned Google from viewing free episodes of TV shows on their website.

Fox became the latest to block the internet-connected TVs, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, a publication of Fox's parent company News Corp. It had previously not announced a decision and was allowing users to access episodes. Fox refused comment on the change.

Many may find the big four's decision to block web video ironic, considering that users can simply go view the content on their PCs. Furthering the irony is the fact that the TV networks have long bemoaned declining viewership and sagging revenue.

From the television networks' perspective, the decision boils down to a couple factors. First and foremost, advertisers currently aren't willing to pay as much for internet video as for spots on broadcast TV (though that gap is slowly eroding).

Tied to that is the fear of minimalization deep-rooted in the networks' psyche. The TV has always been a psychologically significant symbol to networks, their fortress against the web video onslaught so to speak. Now that web video is on the TV their decision may be guided more by emotion than logic, as they dwell on the fear that users will stop watching network TV altogether -- which in turn would further drop their already cloudy bottom line.

The bad part is that the decision may simply do the opposite of their intention. Rather the convince users to ditch the internet surfing and simply return to network television, users may instead choose to go to various networks that do allow Google TV.

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