Streaming media on your plasma TV

Sony is developing a plasma TV that will be able to pull streaming media off the Internet, making online viewing as easy as regular TV. According to this article in Business Week:

The project, code-named Altair, is one of the company’s latest efforts to make digital content more accessible on its consumer-electronics devices, and it reinforces Sony’s vision of the television as the centerpiece of its strategy for networked digital media. The new Sony TV will include a built-in Internet connection and tuners for receiving broadcasts from cable, satellite and over-the-air transmissions, according to sources.

Microsoft is betting that the PC will be the center of the the home entertainment universe, but Sony’s betting on the television. I think Sony’s investment will win out because we’re used to the TV being a center point of our living rooms and dens, not a PC. People want to use a remote control, not a keyboard, for flipping through channels and stored content.