Hope Yet for Yahoo TV Widget Platform?

In two consecutive years at CES first Dave and then I got  excited about the promise of Yahoo’s TV Widgets. But despite all the potential, we’ve seen little of the platform beyond Las Vegas. Now a new report out by GigaOM Pro suggests it may all be a matter of timing. According to the report on TV Apps, the market for widget TV platforms is on track for significant growth in the next five years. And report author Paul Sweeting points out that Yahoo has first-mover advantage with the widest distribution on TVs today. Currently the Yahoo platform is available on TVs from Samsung, LG, Vizo, and Sony.

However, it remains to be seen whether or not Yahoo can get it’s act together fast enough to be true leader in the TV widget space. Sadly, the company hasn’t done much with the lead it established in 2009, and it’s running out of time to take advantage of first-mover position. Vudu has its own widget platform and is now part of retail giant Wal-Mart. DivX also announced its own platform in January. And then there are of course the Roku and Boxee boxes. Add on competition from cable and telco TV operators, Google, and maybe some day Apple, and you’ve got a crowded marketplace. Yahoo’s got a lot of work to do.

Here are some of the stats Sweeting quotes in the GigaOM report.

• 3.7 million TV apps will be downloaded in 2010, and that number will grow to 965 million by 2015. Three out of four apps will be free, but some of those will enable paid services like Netflix’s streaming video app.
• Revenue from paid TV apps will rise from under $10 million in 2010 to nearly $1.9 billion by 2015.
• The market for web tablet apps will grow from $183 million in 2010 to $8.2 billion in 2015, with many of those apps crossing over to Internet-connected TVs.
• 50% of HDTV shipped will have an Internet connection by 2014.