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Google is working to bring Web software to televisions through a partnership with Intel, Sony and Logitech International, according to two people involved in the discussions with the companies.

The project, called Google TV, uses Intel chips, with Switzerland’s Logitech developing a keyboard that operates as a remote control, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the matter isn’t public.

Google, expanding beyond its main Internet-search business, would challenge Yahoo!, TiVo, Rovi and Microsoft in delivering the Internet to TVs.

Intel, meanwhile, is counting on the consumer-electronics market to bolster sales of its Atom chip, which already powers netbooks. The company aims to get Atom into TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes.

“It’s a sign of the legitimacy of Internet connectivity moving well beyond the PC and mobile spaces, which Google has tackled already,” said Kurt Scherf, an analyst at industry researcher Parks Associates in Dallas. “It completes the third leg of the stool.”

Google entered the mobile market in 2008 with its Android operating system, which now runs on phones from manufacturers including Motorola and HTC.

Gabriel Stricker, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment, as did Greg Belloni, a US-based spokesman for Sony, and Pamela McCracken, a spokeswoman for Logitech.

The New York Times reported this week on Google’s plans. Intel spokeswoman Mary Ninow said she was unable to confirm or deny the report.

“If you have two TVs almost the same price, one with Google functionality and another with nothing, you are more inclined to go with Google,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart LLC in San Francisco. “Google has a much bigger role to play on TV now than maybe three to four years back.”

Sony, the No. 3 TV maker after Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, plans to introduce an “advanced” TV model as part of its efforts to turn around its TV business, the company said on Nov. 19.

“This kind of thing won’t be unique to Sony. If Sony doesn’t do it, Apple may step forward and take the lead,” said Yuji Fujimori, a Tokyo-based analyst at Barclays Capital. “It’s hard to tell how the new product will help Sony yet.”

More than one-quarter of TVs purchased by US consumers in January already were capable of linking to the Web through a wi-fi or Ethernet connection, according to researcher iSuppli.



Bloomberg