• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, January 6, 2010 10:18 PM

Dozens of TV nets, retailers and gadget makers are entering what's called the "over the top" TV market, with every reason to innovate in competition with each other. The toughest hurdle has been connecting the television to a potentially bottomless supply of Internet programming. Coming this year are TVs with direct Internet connections, which could change things fast. Of note is Best Buy's recent announcement that every Web-connected TV it sells will soon come with a subscription to a Best Buy library of entertainment. Sony has similar plans. Think Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and Disney won't be in the hunt?

Ditto the cablers, which are burnishing a concept called "TV Everywhere" in hopes of satisfying your appetite for on-demand TV. The losers won't just be cable and satellite's existing business models. The losers will be Verizon and AT&T. Over-the-air broadcasters, now that they have multiple, crystalline hi-def digital channels at their disposal, may prove the best way to deliver live programming over a given geographical area.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »