The Benefits of Google TV to International Consumers

I am living in the Philippines and I love watching TV as a lot of people do. We have regular cable TV subscription and we've had it for almost 2 decades. It's common knowledge that almost all cable TV providers cater only to their respective local viewers and consumers. Plus, they usually have limited channel line-ups. With the advent of high-speed internet, Google TV seems to take advantage of this technology to reach a much wider audience and ultimately bring about a whole new television experience. What can I get from Google TV that I can't get from others? What can it possibly offer me as an international viewer?

First of all, there are probably a countless number of videos and TV channels that are available on the internet compared to the hundred, or so, on your Cable or Satellite TV. With Google TV, you can have access to those on your television set and you won't be limited to local channel line-ups. Plus, you get to watch videos and feeds that are only accessible through the internet such as your favorite streaming video websites.

One main dilemma I have is that I have a couple of channels that I really like. I like East Asian (Japanese, Chinese and Korean) and European (British and French) channels as well but those channels seem to be spread out to different cable and satellite TV providers and a lot of them aren't even available.

Let's say my favorite Korean channel/program is on cable TV provider A. Then, my favorite US channel is on cable TV provider B and then my favorite British channel is on cable TV provider C. I would have to subscribe to all 3 cable TV providers just to be able to watch all 3 channels but that would be expensive and impractical. Wouldn't it be better to watch all of them from just one provider? I can watch them on the web but it's really not comfortable for me to watch TV programs in front of a computer monitor. I do get lots of functionality such as internet video search from a PC and bringing it to my television set seems to be really promising.

I'm expecting that people will probably be able to save money using Google TV. Why is that? Television is probably the most basic entertainment a person, family, friends or a group of people can have. Here in the Philippines, as we are still a 3^rd world country, there's a vast majority of people or households that can't afford to buy a computer but most of them have a television. In order to match Google TV's capabilities and features, you'd have to subscribe to a high-speed internet provider. And to have a better experience in watching these videos and TV programs on your computer, you need to have fairly powerful hardware which is quite costly.

With the accessibility in watching different international TV programs, there exists an exchange of culture. You get to learn more about the traditions and lifestyles in other countries and with Google TV's accessibility to international programs you learn more and feel connected to the rest of the world. This is what I am really excited about.

I think that Google TV will be a good avenue for advertisers as well since they are able to reach and promote to more people. But of course, it will also depend on your needs and your wants. To some people, they are already satisfied with what they already have or do not watch TV that often and adding Google TV won't do any difference or provide any benefit at all. But for the rest of us, it will be a refreshing experience to look forward to. Hopefully, Google TV will be flexible enough to different types of television sets especially the old CRT ones as well as utilize good internet connections so that more people will be able to use this service throughout the world.

Source:
Google TV - Introducing Google TV video
http://www.google.com/tv/