Four Screens Media

Vizio leapfrogs LG’s direct-to-TV Neflix announcement with a full set of direct to TV services.  In a release put out today, Vizio announced that later this year consumers will be able to bring an HDTV home, plug in an Internet connection, and without any additional services or boxes, access the following:

• Casual games through Accedo Broadband (www.accedobroadband.com) — Accedo’s popular casual gaming service, Funspot(R), allows viewers to play a variety of fun games from the comfort of their favorite armchair. Games include Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, Sudoku, and QuizzMaster.
• Video through Blockbuster OnDemand (www.blockbuster.com), Amazon Video on Demand (www.amazon.com/vod), and Neflix streaming services (www.netflix.com).
• Pictures from Flickr (www.flickr.com)
• Music from Pandora (www.pandora.com) and  Rhapsody (www.rhapsody.com)
• Web widges from Yahoo!’s Widget Engine with well-known content providers already developing TV Widgets for deployment include CBS, Showtime(R), TwitterTM, The New York Times(R) and MySpace(R).

We’ve been waiting for this to happen, it’s just good to see Vizio bring it all together.

But the most pleasant surprise was in the remote control – a full qwerty keyboard.  After a year of seeing the ability to browse the web and message with friends on a TV (mainly via video game consoles), we’re finally seeing a remote that will make it practical.  We can tell people about messaging capabilities all we want, but until we put the capability in the consumers hand, literally, it will be difficult for people to adapt.  Similar to how cell phones designed for music spurred music usage, remote controls designed for web and communications apps will spur more usage.  I just hope this becomes standard.