This week, Intel and Yahoo introduced a new way to marry regular television programming with additional content from the internet. Using so-called TV Widgets, the new application can be used to offer enhanced applications alongside broadcast television, which the two companies have christened The Widget Channel.
This ‘channel’ will be powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, a fifth-generation applications platform that will enable TV watchers to interact with and enjoy the TV Widgets, or small Internet applications designed to complement and enhance the traditional TV watching experience and bring content, information and community features available on the Internet within easy reach of the remote control. Intel will supply the chip sets.
The Widget Channel is not the first attempt at trying to bring interactivity to TV sets. The interesting difference this time is that the TV Widgets will use only selected information from the website instead of trying to replicate full web pages.
Of course such a venture will need the support from broadcasters, platforms and content owners. Intel claimed it has received support from big players, including cabler Comcast, ABC Networks and CE manufactures such as Samsumg, Sony, Toshiba and Motorola.
