Either television owners should be breathing a big sigh of relief, or they should be making funeral arrangements for their obsolete business model. In a quiet announcement, Google is backing out of the paid video service- either because they expect all video to be ad supported via their new pop-up ad technology, or that video will be supported by advertisers subsidies, much like it is over the air now. Here was the piece on Electronista that clued us into this news:
Electronista | Google quietly kills paid video service
Sidestepping a public announcement, Google has informed customers individually of its decision to stop its paid video services later this week. In its mass e-mail, the company has explained that “to improve all Google services,” download-to-own and download-to-rent videos purchased through Google Video will become unavailable as of August 15th. In addition to stopping new purchases, this will disable videos already bought in the past. To compensate Google is providing refunds, plus a $2 bonus to be spent at Google Checkout within the next 60 days.The service never grabbed the public limelight, having been quickly dwarfed by the company’s own YouTube acquisition, and better-publicized competitors such as Amazon Unbox and the Apple iTunes Store. In its last days, clips sold through Google Video became limited to episodes of Charlie Rose. It is unclear whether the decision is directly related Google’s increasing involvement with Apple, which has Google co-founder Eric Schmidt on its board of directors, and has integrated YouTube into the iPhone and Apple TV.
No matter what, the delivery of television/video programs as we know it is in for a huge change. The Google/Apple connection on the iPhone and Apple TV may be foreboding for a new business alliance. Combine Googles ability to target advertising, with Apple ability to build an interface and payment system with the iTunes store- and you could have TV 2.0 coming to a plethora of digital devices soon.