According to Google Fiber's top executive, Google is planning to build an alternative to the traditional cable set-top-box.
Google's vice president of access services, Milo Medin predicts that consumers would abandon the black and bulky boxes that many normally rent from their cable providers, allowing platform owned by internet giants for smart television and Android TV to step in and eventually build something better.
At a Washington conference on Wednesday, Medin told reporters saying, "We have talked to folks inside who are now getting interested in it,"
If it pushes through, Google would find its way into the market of cable boxes, marking another turning point for America's progress in the media landscape allowing cord-cutting, skinny bundles and mobile devices, all new ways to give Americans high-quality shows to view.
Medin who also is a former NASA engineer, happens to have a clear idea of how the future of television might look like. Not only that he sees Google, Apple and Amazon getting involved in contributing their devices that can broadcast all the cable channel to its user's need, but a wide range of new competitors among TV manufacturers offering a direct connection of their smart television to a user's cable.
Medin says, "If you can integrate, if you can provide extra functionality and search across these things, and give TV vendors a chance to differentiate from each other and really unlock innovation, I think it's a huge opportunity for those guys," he concludes saying, "Because what's the difference right now between buying a Samsung or a Sony or a Vizio?"
To consider adding in the functionality of the cable box directly into a television would even completely kill off the set-top box.
And he also adds, "When you see what's possible in set-top boxes, people go well, why can't I have that? That's very powerful. And I think the answer is, there's no reason why you can't have that,"
Medin mentioned that Google isn't prompt yet on plans to build the cable box, but a looming government proposal indicates the catalyst for Google's interest to open up the market for set-top boxes. The forthcoming plan of the Federal Communication Commission would penetrate cable companies to hand over some control to how the content of the cable must be displayed on TV.
