Your New Pay-TV Provider Could Be ... Google

Not content to have won the Internet, Google now looks to be eyeing another conquest: TV. The search and advertising giant has reportedly been in talks with media companies about the possibility of licensing their content for an online TV service that would rival traditional cable providers, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sources say the service would include both live TV and on-demand programming, a la Netflix and Hulu. And Google is not alone: Intel and Sony are said to be working on similar ideas, and Apple has also been trying to get into the TV market. "Google feels the need to beat Apple to the punch," says a source privy to the content of Google's meetings, per the New York Times.

But it's all just talk at this stage. Google started working on a similar service two years ago, but talks with media companies went nowhere. Though things have changed since then—broadband is faster and online TV more common—subverting the traditional media system is still a big task. Intel has struggled in its TV efforts because many channels are already locked into contracts with big cable providers and can't license to anyone else, reports the Times. Google and others would likely still have to pay for the same bundles cable providers do—ones with popular and unpopular channels—and somehow find a way to compete on price, the Journal reports. (More Google stories.)