Google TV Next To Play Host To TBS & TNT Content

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Sometimes I look at cable companies, those poor hidebound souls, and wonder why they even bother trying to advance with technology. You’ll remember not so long ago, we brought you word about how Turner networks TBS and TNT were looking to expand their presence with iPad apps. Well, they’re looking to do it again, this time on Google TV. But they’re not going to make it any too easy for you the regular readers.

Basically, TBS and TNT are looking to put full shows like their popular Falling Skies and Closer onto the Google TV service. This is actually something of an interesting step as, reportedly, when Google TV first got started, networks like TBS and TNT started throwing up roadblocks on their online content  specifically because of things like Google TV, which might have used its web browsing platform to access the shows instead of watching shows on television, where they’d be laden with advertising and the like. But now, the Turner networks have opened the doors to Google TV, but have left a mat out front saying “You must be a subscriber to enter.”

Yes, just like the iPad apps, TBS and TNT will let you watch their shows online, but only if you’re prepared to pass the authentication layers by demonstrating that you know the secret handshake known as “I subscribe to X cable company”. And this is the part I don’t particularly get, myself. Considering the number of people out there who get over the air television, and would probably like to try Closer or Falling Skies without subscribing to a big package of television options they really don’t want in the first place, why not slap a couple bookend ads up on the show, and then run it like normal to the non-subscribers? You weren’t going to get them anyway–why not take advantage of users you wouldn’t have had previously? Ah, but if such a thing were available, many subscribers would likely look at their own big packages they mostly didn’t want and react accordingly.

So what do you think? Are we looking at just the start of a day when you get to pick your own shows to watch, catch a few ads at the beginning to pay for the whole thing, and then carry on from there? Or will all the rules and roadblocks kill interest before we can even start? The comments section is waiting, so head on down and tell us what you think!