Google announced over the weekend that Google TV is finally coming to the U.K. Those who have been waiting for a Google TV device can now pre-order a Sony Internet Player with Google TV from Sony’s web store. The players are estimated to be available around July 9. Sony is also planning to roll out its Google TV device to Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, and Netherlands sometime in 2012.
The announcement of the U.K. release of Google TV came in a post by Suveer Kothari, head of global distribution for Google TV, to the official Google TV blog. Kothari touted the new features that Google has been adding to Google TV over the past year. From the blog post:
For example, in the U.K. you’ll be able to pop live TV into the background while you read up on The Guardian’s website with Chrome, catch up on the latest episode of EastEnders on the BBC iPlayer, view Lauren Luke’s latest make-up tips on YouTube, and choose from the hundreds of apps optimized for TV in Google Play. To get a better sense of the benefits of Google TV, check out this video.
Kothari also teased that there will be some Google TV announcements at Google I/O this week, where developers will show off the latest apps and features for the platform. An international demo video for Google TV was released in conjunction with the U.K. announcement. Check out the video below to see how far the platform has come since its release two years ago: