Google Announces Content Partners for Google TV

Google announced on Monday several content partners for its upcoming Google TV platform. In a blog post, Ambarish Kenghe, Developer Product Manager for Google TV, said that several major media (and one sports) companies were working on optimizing their content for delivery through the system, including Turner Broadcasting, NBC Universal, HBO, and the NBA.

Google TV is an online service being offered by the search giant to TV manufacturers that can then add it their TV sets. With it, users can access Google search, YouTube, Google Docs and other services, or simply use Google’s Chrome browser to access the Web itself.

The company describes Google TV as, “a platform that combines your current TV programming and the open web into a single, seamless entertainment experience. […] Since our announcement, we’ve been overwhelmed by interest from partners on how they can use the Google TV platform to personalize, monetize and distribute their content in new ways.”

To wit:

  • Turner Broadcasting has been hard at work optimizing some of their most popular Web sites for viewing on Google TV, including TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, available anytime through Google TV.
  • NBC Universal has collaborated with Google TV to bring CNBC Real-Time, an application that allows you to track your favorite stocks and access news feeds while enjoying the best financial news from CNBC directly on the TV screen.
  • HBO will bring access to hundreds of hours of programming to Google TV with HBO GO. Authenticated subscribers will soon be able to access all of their favorite HBO content on-demand in an enhanced Web site for Google TV.
  • NBA has built NBA Game Time, an application that lets you follow game scores in real-time and catch up on the latest highlights from your favorite team in HD.

Google has launched a new site for the service, a site with videos of all the features you can get with the service. The company also released this video to demonstrate the current state of the service. [Editor’s note: Notice how they “cheat” by including Maria Bartiromo from CNBC in one of the examples!]