Philips, Sharp and Loewe aim to create common platform for connected TVs

BERLIN, Germany — Philips, creator of Net TV – a portal for online content applications on Philips TVs – is cooperating with Sharp and Loewe in order to investigate the definition of a common, competitive internet platform for connected TVs and other internet-enabled electronic devices across Europe and Russia. The cooperation, for which Philips, Sharp and Loewe signed a letter of intent today, will drive simplicity by acting as a common point of contact towards content providers.

The objective of the cooperation – which is open to other producers of connected devices – is to enrich the number of content applications offered via connected devices, such as video on demand, catch up TV, music services, gaming, social media and infotainment. The aim of the common platform is to make it easier for content providers to develop content applications on the basis of a single technology platform. As a result, content providers will be able to maximize their reach across connected devices, giving more consumers access to a wider variety of content applications.

In order to establish a common platform, Philips, Sharp, Loewe and other potential interested partners intend to share and align technologies. The common platform aims to use open web-based standards like CE-HTML and HbbTV. Respectively, the partners also intend to open up their infrastructures for connected devices to each other in order to optimize the deployment of content applications across those devices, as well as improve the user experience for consumers.

Sharp today already announced the introduction of their range of connected TVs based upon Net TV technology.