IndustryGoogle Acquires SageTV for GoogleTV Reinvigoration

Google Acquires SageTV for GoogleTV Reinvigoration

Google just picked up SageTV for an undisclosed amount. SageTV, a software and hardware company that built a product for watching and recording TV shows from any computer with a high-speed internet connection, is likely to be integrated into Google TV.

Google TV Logo

Google just picked up SageTV for an undisclosed amount. SageTV, a software and hardware company that built a product for watching and recording TV shows from any computer with a high-speed internet connection, is likely to be integrated into GoogleTV.

The SageTV Acquisition

The SageTV CTO went into the community forums at the SageTV site and informed everyone that Google had bought the company. Later that day, a press release and “http://sagetv.com/index.html”>brand new home page confirmed the same. The new greeting to be found on every page of the site (except the forums) informed users that the nine-year-old company was joining forces with Google in the hopes that “our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.”

While neither Google nor SageTV have spoken up about the exact purposes of the acquisition, the SageTV home page message does indicate that the “shared vision for open technology will help us advance the online entertainment experience.” While that could mean other existing media platforms owned by Google, the most logical product for SageTV technologies to show up on is GoogleTV.

How GoogleTV May Integrate Sage Technology

Google TV hasn’t precisely been the Alexander the Great of online entertainment. Despite high hopes and big promises, Google has fallen short repeatedly – even pulling several products from CES this year. The rumored reason was that the software (i.e., Google’s end of the bargain) just wasn’t good enough yet. The product has since undergone several waves of enhancements, but first quarter sales still showed up at 72 percent below original Logitech projections.

But GoogleTV isn’t dead yet. Some diehard fans continue to loyally support the platform, and among those fans you can find recognizable faces like Logitech – who has continued to manufacture Google’s TV hardware in good faith. Logitech’s efforts are pretty much limited to TV tuners, however, and SageTV may change the exact role those tuners play.

SageTV is interested in software for the computer environment that accomplishes the same cutting-edge tasks that traditional TV systems do. For example, the ability to DVR your shows is part of SageTV’s technology. SageTV also “slingboxes,” allowing users to watch their television programming on computer systems once an additional piece of computer hardware is installed on a host computer system.

While it will almost certainly take some time to integrate, SageTV’s technology could allow GoogleTV subscribers to get access to their content on any system that has a high-speed internet connection; the technology is essentially a cloud-based way to access recorded content and current programming. Additionally, GoogleTV may be able to expand their programming thanks to SageTV’s current licensing.

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