TMCnet News
Japan eyes proposing international standard for "smart TV"(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, July 7 -- (Kyodo) _ A Japanese government ministry is planning to propose global standards for "smart TV" that integrates broadcasting and Internet services, by working out basic technologies with broadcasters, telecommunications carriers and electronics manufacturers in the country, sources familiar with the move said Saturday. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is eyeing reporting to an international standardization organization on Net technology after conducting experiments for roughly two years through fiscal 2013, the sources said. Competition is intensifying in the smart TV market, in which a product running on an operating platform by leading Net technology company Google Inc. has already gone on sale, while computer maker Apple Inc. is also thought to be developing its own technology. The ministry is apparently hoping that its effort will help reinvigorate Japanese manufacturers that have been struggling in the flat TV business in the face of stiff competition from South Korean rivals. The ministry may face a fight against time to realize its goal in the rapidly evolving industry, as one telecommunications industry source said "the trend has been technology proposed by a hit product effectively becomes a global standard." The technology envisaged by the ministry will enable consumers to easily access on a TV screen photos and other data stored on the Internet or in a smartphone, as well as transfer broadcast programs to smartphones, the sources said. Existing models allow viewers to check the Internet on TV, rent videos through the Net and share views on a TV program through social media such as Twitter. Japanese-born technologies, such as a mechanism to receive emergency broadcasting signals in time of a disaster, may also be incorporated into the envisaged standard. The ministry is believed to be in favor of an "open" standard for use by various manufacturers and software companies that would enable links among devices running on different platforms and made by different manufacturers, the sources said. In Japan, around 270,000 households are equipped with smart TV devices in fiscal 2011 and the number should grow to 7.7 million in five years, according to Nomura Research Institute, a private research company. (c) 2012 Kyodo News International, Inc. |