Google said to weigh supplying TV channels

Intel is hard at work on one such service and companies like Sony and Microsoft have previously shown interest in the same idea,called an “over the top” service because the channels would ride on top of existing broadband connections. They need support from the channel owners,though,and so far that has been tepid.

Google,which also owns YouTube,the world’s largest online video site,declined to comment on its television interest. But by instigating conversations with channel owners about a service that would compete with the likes of Comcast,the company is taking a different tack than its rival Apple,which has been trying to collaborate with both channel owners and their distributors on a TV offering.

“Google feels the need to beat Apple to the punch,” said one of the people with direct knowledge of the meetings,who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Apple’s thinking,according to these people,is that any next-generation television service must be set up in partnership with existing distributors,in part for quality assurance reasons. A future Apple service could include a user-friendly interface layered on top of Time Warner Cable or Cablevision’s channel line-up. “Apple’s working within our current ecosystem,” one of the people said.

What Google and Intel,and probably others,have in mind is more disruptive and more difficult. One person involved in the talks with Google cautioned that the company might end up just selling a library of TV shows,the way Netflix,Amazon and Hulu already do. But others said that Google has pitched an easy-to-use subscription service that would stream a bundle of live channels as well as on-demand shows,replacing the cable bundles that most households now purchase.

Google,an advertising company at its core,has tried to make a dent in the television business before. Previous talks with channel owners in 2011 went nowhere. An attempt at an automated TV ad-buying system was shut down last year. Broadband in the meantime has continued to become more popular and more widely available,spurring interest in alternatives to traditional television distribution.

Intel is trying to create a similar over-the-top service,but it has run into roadblocks set up by Time Warner Cable and other incumbent television distributors. But Google,Intel and the others eyeing the television space are deep-pocketed giants. And they have another thing going for them: in customer satisfaction surveys,they are a lot more popular than the cable guys.