Connected TV gains momentum

Connected TV’s will be available this year from - Sony, LG, Samsung, Panasonic and Vizio.

IPG Lab posits 2009, the dawn of connected TV?

Sony grows from their early adoption by incorporating the BIVL (Bravia Internet Video Link) into the television set instead of as a backpack.

Broadcom has announced that LG Electronics will be using their versatile BCM3549 Media SoC (System on a Chip) on a new line of connected HDTVs.

New connected TV sets are becoming available from Vizio for $1,199, an exciting pricepoint for gaining breadth of adoption.

What about content?

Broadcom is also looking to expand the content and interface story with their collaboration with Chumby. The goal is to have a rich catalog of TV Applications available to Broadcom-enabled sets.

Vizio has jumped in feet first and offers Yahoo! Widgets, Flash, Blockbuster on Demand, Flikr, Pandora, Rhapsody, Accedo Broadband and Netflix

Sony has taken advantage of their early lead and have been growing their catalog for BIVL regularly.

And as I talked about in a previous post, Amazon.com VOD already supports Sony and Panasonic sets available today with a large and growing catalog.

What does that mean for the industry?

To quote Scott Susskind in Advance Emerging Media News.

“Marcomm agencies and Media companies should all be looking carefully at this emerging technology to leverage for their brands and content. Connected TVs that support Widgets and interactive video frameworks such as Flash, will very quickly do to the TV ecosystem what the Apple iPhone and App store did to Mobile. IE: Make it fun again.”