Yahoo To Let Widget Developers Charge For TV Apps

Yahoo widgets, they may now cost you

Yahoo! TV widgets have been in development for probably the longest time in the history of internet tv, undergoing many changes onn the way. The latest is to let developers sell their widgets/apps in the Yahoo connected TV store a’ la iTunes.

said Russ Schafer, Yahoo! marketing executive:- “We are adding a very tangible monetization element to the Connected TV platform that didn’t exist before by giving developers and publishers the opportunity to create paid widgets,”

At present, the apps available for Yahoo Connected TV’s are free with revenue generating opportunities for downloading video etc. But that changes next March when Yahoo will let software developers charge a fee for applications. Of course Yahoo will want their cut which equates to 30%.

Yahoo widgetsshow as icons on the tv screen and when clicked, launch an app that has been optimized for the tv set. Yahoo has many manufacturers partnering including Sony, Samsung, LG and Toshiba participating in most Countries.

The problem is, have Yahoo left it too late? Many other big players have entered the market since Yahoo developed the system and even surpassed them. From Google to Apple, their is some serious competition now in the market.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit this week, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said :- “I love what that [Connected TV] widget team did and I also loved that business development was hand in hand with them and went to the Sonys, and Panasonics and Toshibas and so on and so forth,” she said.

However, with the competition expanding daily, they may need to make changes :- “One of the things we’re looking at is whether just having an API layer is good enough or whether we should think of a different way to work than the widget way. So we’re continuing to push that. We’ve got a great, small, young, aggressive team on this, but it could change — I don’t know — because the landscape is changing,” she said.

Yahoo teamed up with Samsung earlier this month after announcing they will partner up to sell Yahoo Connected TV sets in an extra 26 countries throughout Europe, making the total 39.

But with Google planning to flood the market with Google TV in Logitech boxes and Sony televisions, and Apple pushing it’s next generation Apple TV. The future is not looking as rosy for Yahoo as it did a year or two ago.

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Steve Sanger

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