Broadband video-to-TV trend seen roiling business models

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A wave of new technologies that link home computers to televisions could threaten traditional media distribution methods as consumer interest in online video entertainment continues to grow.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, electronics manufacturers from Sony Corp. <6758.T> to start-ups such as Sling Media unveiled a raft of new products to allow consumers to play Internet videos, or media files stored on PCs, directly on their TV screens.

Bridging that PC-to-TV gap would open up new distribution potential for media content providers, but would also challenge traditional distribution channels and strategies, such as cable TV's much-vaunted video on demand services.

"There are a lot of companies looking to bypass cable," said Bob Greene, executive vice president of Liberty Media Holding Corp.'s <LCAPA.O> Starz Entertainment network.

"I think it is something they should be concerned about," he told Reuters.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony said it planned to sell new TVs with modules that let viewers pipe in content on PCs and Internet programming.

Viacom Inc. <VIAb.N>, Starz Entertainment's subscription broadband video service and film studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. <LGF.N> signed deals to let users of Microsoft Corp.'s <MSFT.O> new Vista operating system send PC-based content to TVs and video game consoles.

And two-year-old Sling Media, which made its name selling a device that allowed cable TV shows to be the viewed on laptops and cellphones, launched a prototype of a new gadget that connects all PC-based media to TV screens. The device would also allow viewers to clip and share live TV broadcasts over the Internet.

But consumers are currently unwilling to pay more for a device that lets them view PC content on TV screens, according to a poll of 5,000 U.S. homes by Forrester Research.

Moreover, the bandwidth constraints of current broadband services essentially rule out any downloading or streaming of high-definition programs.

"Whether it's a good thing to do remains unknown," said Glenn Britt, chief executive of Time Warner Cable, a soon-to-be publicly traded division of Time Warner Inc. <TWX.N>. "Just because we could do things doesn't means it's good for consumers, or that it's good for us."

Britt compared the trend in linking broadband Internet video to TVs to the wireless industry's fascination with creating new systems to digital television services.