Google has acquired digital video recording (DVR) technology company SageTV, which suggests that a Google TV upgrade may be on its way. Neither the sale price or specific future plans have been revealed by either company.
SageTV provides DVR software that runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, allowing users to watch and record television, view photos and listen to music on their television sets from a host PC. SageTV also provide a service which allows users to watch TV over a high-speed internet connection, including popular on-demand video site Netflix.
In a statement on SageTV’s website, the company outlines their motives for joining with Google,
“As the media landscape continues to evolve, we think it’s time our vision of entertainment management grows as well. By teaming up with Google, we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.”
The statement goes on to note how “Google’s developer efforts…stimulate innovation across the web” and that both companies’ “shared vision for open technology” will help SageTV “advance the online entertainment experience”.
This latest acquisition may improve Google’s own interactive television offering, Google TV, which has failed to really impress so far. It would make perfect sense if Google now integrates some of SageTV’s most popular features into its own service.