Why Net-Enabled TV Is Still Tying the Networks in Knots

If you've been following the discord between the TV networks and Google TV, this news should strike you as odd: ESPN is making its ScoreCenter mobile app available on Samsung's Internet-enabled TVs.

So, let me get this straight: it's OK to put an app from a TV network on a non-Google Internet-enabled TV, but it's not OK to put video content from a TV network on Google TV, which is also Internet-enabled. Stop me if this starts to make sense.

ESPN owner Disney (DIS) has blocked content from Google TV, just like other major broadcasters -- some of whom have suggested that if Google (GOOG) pays up, they just might reconsider. But while an app like ScoreCenter may not have the audience of, say, ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcasts, it is still content. Consumers are no longer making clear distinctions between streaming video and the other content that surrounds it, and the whole point of an Internet-enabled TV is that it brings different kinds of content -- around the same general topic -- to one screen.

A story about the Samsung ScoreCenter app in Mediaweek points out that, "condensed apps, with limited video content, may serve as a more palatable means of approaching TV/Web convergence for TV companies."

That's true, but what about consumers?

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