TV viewers in the United Kingdom will have exclusive access to the new Internet-based TV service Net TV from Philips, the company announced a few days ago.
The new service is aimed specifically towards the higher-end TV series from Philips -- series 8000 to 9000 and Cinema 21:9 TVs -- and "enables simple, fast access to a wide range of entertainment and information web sites from the online start page on the TV screen."
The service from Philips will offer support for YouTube, eBay, TomTom, and numerous other services, with other widgets to be added later. It's likely the box will be connected via WiFi Internet, so users won't have to worry about even more cable clutter in the future.
It's likely Net TV will be available in April, but Philips has remained silent about an official release date.
As more viewers begin to have set-top boxes or game consoles with Internet connections hooked up to their TVs, there has been a growing interest to offer more interactivity between viewers and the TV. For example, Intel and Yahoo are working with OEMs to offer Yahoo widgets on TVs, with support for Flickr, e-mail, and other similar services.
