Sohu, Haier to Develop Internet TV
Beijing Morning Post, 3/23/09
Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) and Haier will cooperate to provide a television "HD Film Channel" that will offer 40,000 movies in HD, adding 1,000 programs to its content storehouse daily. Programming will be branded with a 'Sohu' tag in the channel information display area. A spokesperson for Sohu revealed that programming will, for the time being, be made freely available.
After users of Haier's upcoming line of internet-enabled televisions connect their TV sets to the internet, they will be able to use their remote control to select online film content, read news content, and play games. The new televisions and internet modules are set to hit the market in April, and will be several hundred yuan more expensive than other televisions of the same screen size owing mainly to the additional cost of the internet module.
Editor's Note: Internet television differs from IPTV in that content for the former is not provided by the telecom operator and its IPTV license-holding partner. Instead, depending on how the integrated Internet TV set or set-top box has been configured, the user can freely search the internet for content or may select from a menu of content provided by the device manufacturer or a third-party content provider.
IPTV set-top boxes are typically provided to users, either for a fee or as part of their subscription package, by the telecom operator, and IPTV subscribers must pay a monthly service fee. Internet TV sets and STBs are normally sold through consumer electronics retail chains like Gome or Suning, or other retail channels like TV shopping networks.
Keywords: Internet TV Haier Internet IPTV programming set-top box Sohu television TV set
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