Google to Launch TV Service in U.S. This Fall (GOOG)

Google, Inc. GOOG will launch a television service in the United States this fall, the company's CEO said Tuesday. According to a Reuters report, "CEO Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow full Internet browsing via the television, would be free, and Google would work with a variety of programme makers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers." "We will work with content providers, but it is very unlikely that we will get into actual content production," Schmidt told journalists after a keynote speech to the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin. The move is yet another attempt to compete with Apple AAPL, which just announced a new version of its Apple TV product last week. The Reuters report notes that "The world's No.1 search engine is hunting for new revenue opportunities as growth in its core Internet business slows and as new technologies such as smartphones and social networking services transform the way consumers access the Web." Shares of Google are down more than $5 this afternoon, or 1.1%, to $465.11.