Funai Electric Co., Ltd. and ActiveVideo Networks™ announced an agreement in principle that will make Funai the first consumer electronics manufacturer to bring interactive television solutions based entirely in the network cloud to connected televisions.
Funai Electric manufactures Philips, Emerson, Magnavox and Sylvania brand televisions and Blu-ray players. Funai and ActiveVideo anticipate that an announcement regarding availability of CloudTV-enabled products will be issued in the near future.
Under the agreement, Funai will integrate
ActiveVideo’s CloudTV™ platform into selected television and Blu-ray player makes and models, enabling viewers to enter a revolutionary environment in which Web-based video, rich graphics and compelling applications are streamed, not downloaded, from servers in the network to Funai-made connected devices.
The CloudTV architecture offers a variety of benefits for the CE and developer communities, including the elimination of the need for more expensive processing and storage capabilities in the CE device; a “One Platform” approach in which a limitless array of content and applications can be written once and delivered to any device; and the minimization of software bugs by streaming, rather than downloading, content to the TV. For consumers, placing the intelligence in the network, and not in the home, ensures maximum functionality throughout the lengthy lifespans that are typical of CE devices, even as web standards evolve.
For the complete press release, please click
here. 
In November 2010, Yahoo announced that an expansion of their Connected TV program would allow developers to build fee-based widgets for TVs that use the Yahoo application platform. Unfortunately, Yahoo’s online widget application store has had a delay in opening the store to consumers. Originally scheduled to open early this month, Yahoo is working hard to keep their promise to consumers. 
