The technical reason TV Networks can block Google TV (for now..)

Posted by Charbax – November 25, 2010

I don’t have Google TV yet, I’m waiting for ARM Powered version of it, and they haven’t yet released it world wide. But I like to speculate about how it works as I am sure Google TV will revolutionize TV, and the Trillion-dollar/year TV industry.

The probable technical reason TV networks are able to currently block Google TV from accessing their online web tv offerings is probably flash.

The Chrome browser in Google TV can be set to User Agent: Generic (by default though it is set as User Agent: Google TV), thus making it impossible for websites to detect that the user visiting the website is using a set-top-box or a computer/laptop/tablet or other device.

The probable only way for them to detect the set-top-box, can only be the flash plugin. As Adobe probably doesn’t want to irritate the TV networks, due to them all using Flash, they probably also don’t want to allow Google to switch over the flash player in Google TV to User Agent: Generic.

Google probably also prefers to try as hard as possible to make some deals with the content providers instead of forcing Adobe into setting up Flash to be undetectable. As Google wants all these content partners also to allow their content be distributed on YouTube.

In any ways, if Google and the TV Networks don’t reach an agreement soon, I am sure Google will eventually ask Adobe to provide Flash in a totally undetectable fashion. And if that happens, the TV networks will only be able to decide if they want to have any “legal” streaming of their shows online or none at all. And if they decide to remove online flash streaming, the most popular application on Google TV boxes will most likely then be BitTorrent.

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  • Bob

    Wonder if someone can just hack a patch for flash that changes the useragent or sits between flash and the IP stack and intercepts any useragent data? Otherwise, bittorrent + RSS will win the day.

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    [...] networks to agree to allow them to stream TV shows from the web on the Google TV platform. I have estimated that if Google and Adobe wanted, if the negociations with US TV networks wouldn’t lead to a [...]

  • http://armdevices.net/2011/01/14/arm-powered-google-tv-confirmed/ ARM Powered Google TV confirmed – ARMdevices.net

    [...] an unofficial jailbreak on Google TV also confirmed my speculation that the main reason TV Networks can block Google TV is because of the Flash Plugin officially [...]

  • http://armdevices.net/2011/02/10/google-tv-seeks-fcc-regulation-to-start-a-webtv-revolution/ Google TV seeks FCC regulation to start a WebTV revolution – ARMdevices.net

    [...] The technical reason TV Networks can block Google TV (for now..) (armdevices.net) [...]

  • http://armdevices.net/2011/02/27/look-forward-to-my-cebit-2011-video-coverage-this-week/ Look forward to my CeBIT 2011 video coverage this week – ARMdevices.net

    [...] already? Because of the international media rights issues, and Google’s issues with getting TV rights within the US market even, it may be Google waits for Google I/O in May or so to unveil more on [...]

  • http://armdevices.net/2011/05/06/3-things-google-tv-needs-from-google-io-in-4-days/ 3 things Google TV needs from Google I/O in 4 days – ARMdevices.net

    [...] Unlock Desktop User Agent in the Flash plugin. The only reason TV websites can block Google TV is because of the Flash plugin not hiding itself [...]

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