Yahoo! has had its eyes on entering the living room for some time and is in a much better position to do so when it compares itself to Google. Its got a good partnersip with TiVo, PC DVR software, successful internet video services and a deal with Akimbo.
Yahoo! and TiVo
Yahoo! already has a strong partnership with TiVo
with a number of Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Weather and Yahoo! photos available through the TiVo box.
Also Yahoo! partnered with TiVo to allow its Yahoo! TV Guide to work with TiVo allowing remote scheduling through the Yahoo TV guide website. Because of this already inherent relationship with TiVo it has been said before that TiVo would make a good takeover candidate for Yahoo! to really bring it into the living room.
Yahoo!’s PC PVR software
However this seems not to be so likely now considering Yahoo! is concentrating on creating its own PC DVR solution. It previously acquired Meedio which was a company that had its own PV DVR software. A week later Yahoo! released Yahoo! Go TV which was built on the Meedio platform. The Yahoo! DVR software integrated many other Yahoo! video services such as Yahoo! News and LaunchCast music videos.
At the moment Yahoo! is changing from Yahoo! Go TV to a new similar service called My Channel which appears to have a new user interface and possibly completely new software behind it. At this point in time you can’t even get to the old Yahoo! Go TV website.
Yahoo! and Online Video
It is also worthwhile pointing out that Yahoo! was leading the online video market (in terms of number of views) back in July last year. Whether this is still that case is unknown but the company still has a huge chunk of the market with the Yahoo! video search engine, LaunchCast music videos, and Yahoo! News videos which will no doubt be integrated into the new Yahoo! My Channel DVR software.
Yahoo! was also previously teamed up with Al Gore’s Web TV channel, Current TV, but this partnership recently ended — WatchMojo speculates why.
Yahoo! and Akimbo Deal
The latest attempt for Yahoo! to squeeze through the living room door is a deal with Akimbo, a company that provides an internet video on demand solution that can be used with Microsoft Media Center PCs
and with the RCA Akimbo living room set top box
.
The deal will allow Akimbo users to browse a regularly updated selection of Yahoo!’s popular videos, then watch the clips on their TV screens, without an extra charge. This greatly expands Akimbo which has a lack of free content and effectively brings a YouTube type service to the TV.
It also helps Yahoo! get in the living room although Akimbo themselves are not doing to well in that department, although a recent deal with AT&T will help them out a little bit.
Yahoo! Compared to Microsoft
Compared to Microsoft however Yahoo! looks dead in the water with Microsoft boasting an IPTV middleware platform, Media Center PCs, media extenders, the soapbox video sharing site, the Xbox 360 with video downloads with IPTV on the way and far more deals and partnerships with big TV related companies.
