If there was any question about Google planning to offer their own pay TV service, it would seem to be answered by their recent applications in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas.
On February 17 they filed applications in both states to offer IPTV service to customers of the broadband Internet service they are currently building in the two cities. The filings came close on the heels of US and EU regulators approving their buyout of cable set-top box manufacturer Motorola Mobility.
Late last year a report appeared indicating Google was in negotiations to secure deals with media companies for such a service. While Google remains noncommittal about the rumor, earlier this month Ars Technica uncovered another clue in the form of an FCC application suggesting plans for an antenna array to receive commercial TV broadcasts, similar to a cable television head end, at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
That seems to fit the little bit of detail Google included in their Kansas application, which describes an IPTV service using "national and regional video headend facilities to send IPTV across a private IP network to subscribers."
In theory, such an arrangement would give them a significant amount of flexibility to expand their TV services. It seems unlikely Google really wants to be either an infrastructure or pay TV company. But at least for the time being, their plans to change the TV ecosystem would seem to require both.
Late last year a report appeared indicating Google was in negotiations to secure deals with media companies for such a service. While Google remains noncommittal about the rumor, earlier this month Ars Technica uncovered another clue in the form of an FCC application suggesting plans for an antenna array to receive commercial TV broadcasts, similar to a cable television head end, at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
That seems to fit the little bit of detail Google included in their Kansas application, which describes an IPTV service using "national and regional video headend facilities to send IPTV across a private IP network to subscribers."
In theory, such an arrangement would give them a significant amount of flexibility to expand their TV services. It seems unlikely Google really wants to be either an infrastructure or pay TV company. But at least for the time being, their plans to change the TV ecosystem would seem to require both.
