This has made it challenging for developers to make apps that can run on a large cross-section of these televisions.

But on Wednesday, manufacturers LG Electronics and TP Vision (which makes Philips-branded smart TV sets in a number of territories) announced the formation of the Smart TV Alliance.

The group’s mission: to create a set of open HTML-based standards so that application developers can make apps that run across smart TV brands.

The group says other Japanese manufacturers (Sony? Sharp?) are in the process of joining its alliance. Last fall, Sharp joined LG and Philips in announcing an intention to create this alliance.

Also read: LG, Sharp, Philips harmonize smart TV standards

“The Smart TV Alliance creates a larger playing field which encourages developers to create more and better TV applications at the same time giving manufacturers and consumers the richest source of movies-on-demand, music services, games, social networking and more,” said said Bong-seok Kwon of LG Electronics, president of Smart TV Alliance, in a statement.

The group is making the first version of its software development kit available for free on its site.

Using the television as a primary device to connect the living room to the internet would seem like a no-brainer. But according to a study released Wednesday by the NPD Group, consumers actually seem to prefer other devices like Blu-ray players to perform that task.

According to the NPD report, 80 percent of Blu-ray users who connect their boxes to the internet actually use them to access such things as over-the-top TV programming. Only 69 percent of smart TV users who have connections do the same.

London-based Teletrax, which was launched in 2002 as a JV between Philips and Medialink, used unique algorithims to embed imperceptible signals in video content transmitted by the likes of Reuters and NBC, then monitoring dozens of broadcast sources for illegal uses of encoded material – helping content owners track re-use of their footage. Philips this summer bought the 76 percent it didn’t own. Alex Terpstra, who was chief of Philips’ Content ID unit, is now Civolution CEO.

Disclaimer: Teletrax has been a sponsor of paidContent:UK and helped us organise a video measurement roundtable in London earlier this year.

London-based Teletrax, which was launched in 2002 as a JV between Philips and Medialink, uses unique algorithims to embed imperceptible signals in video content transmitted by the likes of Reuters and NBC, then monitors dozens of broadcast sources for illegal uses of encoded material, helping content owners track re-use of their footage. Philips already announced last month it would buy out Medialink; the combined entity is now targeting internet video and other new content streams. Release.

Disclaimer: Teletrax has been a sponsor of paidContent:UK and helped us organise a video measurement roundtable in London earlier this year.

Approximately none of the electronics makers have so far developed a satisfactory product that brings web TV to the big plasma in the lounge (BBC’s Ashley Highfield called both Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) solutions “sub-optimal“). But that could be about to change, with Philips using Berlin’s IFA electronics market this week to demo “Net TV”…

Net TV is essentially a television with an IPTV chip built in. Philips is currently gathering partners for the on-screen portal, currently including Reuters, German film site Kino.de and news website Nu.nl in its native Holland – those two countries the first to get the service, says broadbandtvnews: “The idea is that Philips will take a payment from each generated stream. Also, it will be possible to order movies and TV series as part of a VOD service, where the company expects a cut from the revenues.” More after the jump…

With such an array of video standards out there, accommodating each and every variant of internet video channel will be a challenge, even though the chip could theoretically be flashed with firmware updates to accommodate new standards. But then, Philips’ goal here seems to be to strike particular deals with a chosen few suppliers, rather than to provide open access to the wealth of video on the desktop web. If Philips built a device that could subscribe to videos from the gamut of producers – from the smallest vidcaster to the latest Rocketboom episode, from the my friends’ YouTube vids to the BBC News Channel – it would have a winner on its hands.

Though Net TV also promises access to web pages, like the semi-walled garden approach to video, and while Nintendo Wii is already showing full web pages to those on the sofa, Philips is using CEHTML, a variant of the web language crippled for telly. Evoking parallels with its old CD-i, Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) Bravia Internet Video Link and yesteryear’s Microsoft Web TV, Net TV is due out next year.

(Photo: inajkruse)

Teletrax was formed out of Philips’ watermarking technology (named Watercast), and then later Medialink took a majority stake. Now the company, after having diversified into areas beyond TV such as online and mobile video, is back in Philips fold. The company has been working with the likes of NBC, Tribune and Reuters Television over the years, among others.

Disclaimer: Teletrax has been a sponsor of paidContent:UK and helped us organize a video measurement roundtable in London earlier this year.