Google TV Gets International Apps (But Still No International Sales)

Google has highlighted a fresh batch of Google TV apps for international content, despite the fact that so far the smart TV platform itself is still limited to the US market only. Al Jazeera, Euronews, IslamBox and PPTV all get a name-check on Google's official TV blog, offering a mixture of live shows, breaking news and video-on-demand. However, Google is yet to confirm when, exactly, we can expect international availability to go with the international content.

There's also Raaga, for South Asian music, Crunchyroll for Japanese anime and Asian Drama – episodes airing an hour after they do in Japan – and Yupp TV for Indian live and on-demand content. Most offer multiple dialects, along with subtitle, and video comes in some cases up to HD quality.

Google added Android Market (now Play Market) access to the Google TV platform in version 2.0, though the number of apps actually released for the smart TV system is still well behind those for its smartphone counterparts.

These new channels are being billed as suitable for ex-pats now living in the US but missing the TV from back home, though we wouldn't be surprised if Google was also feathering its download store ready for the international launch later in the year. More details on that are likely to be revealed at Google I/O 2012 in late June.