Google meets network execs on TV plans - report

Google has started meeting with the US TV networks in an effort to attract support for its new Google TV software. Google is partnering with manufacturers such as Logitech and Sony to inncorporate the software in devices such as set-top boxes and TVs that can bring both traditional broadcast and internet content to home screens. In recent weeks, Google has met with officials of TV networks ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to encourage them to work with the service, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. Content owners, though, are skeptical that Google can provide a business model that would compensate for potentially cannibalizing TV owners' existing broadcast businesses. Google executives are pushing hard to convince content owners to share data about their video websites to make it easier for Google to search and display their shows in blended TV-web listings, the paper's sources said. When a user searches for a show like ABC's Desperate Housewives, for instance, Google's software will list episodes scheduled to air on TV and airing at that moment, along with episodes and other related content online. Google also wants content owners to adapt their online video for larger screens. The company wants some TV-owned websites redesigned so that they display better on a bigger screen, with larger frames for the video and less text, said people familiar with Google's road show.