Google TV Gets Static

The biggest flop of the new fall TV season wasn't Fox's Lone Star or ABC's My Generation. It's Google TV.

The engineers at the search goliath appear to have pulled off the double whammy of disappointing the technorati and alienating the broadcast networks—two constituencies crucial to getting Google TV off the ground. Currently, NBC, CBS, ABC and Hulu are blocking full-length episodes from being accessed via the platform. Per insiders, those nets are unlikely to budge anytime soon, in part because of Google's arrogant yet naïve attitude when it comes to the network TV business. Google execs, who declined comment, irked several representatives from the big three networks from the start by dismissing their concerns about protecting the lucrative network business model—and dependent relationships with affiliates and cable providers. One official compared Google's stance to the quote often attributed to Henry Ford: "People can have the Model T in any color -- so long as it's black." "The ecosystem in TV pays for the content," said one media executive. "I'm not sure Google gets that. They are approaching this as if it's an academic MBA project."