Google pilots Kansas pay-TV service

Google has sent an ever-clearer signal that it could be bringing a TV service to the Kansas City market, The Kansas City Star reports.

The company's subsidiary, Google Fiber, recently filed applications in Missouri and Kansas to operate a video service.

The move, while affecting just a small footprint and serving as an experiment, is potentially huge as it unlocks a new, subscriber-based revenue stream, The New York Post notes.

The anticipated pay-TV service will also allow Google to increase advertising revenue as well as control the pipeline.

The Wall Street Journal adds that the video service, if approved, would thrust the Mountain View, California, company into closer competition with satellite and cable companies, such as Time Warner Cable, that already sell pay-TV service in Kansas City.

Google could launch its TV service as soon as a month or two from now, according to a media executive currently involved in negotiations to licence channels to the service. The service would offer subscribers live TV, as well as on-demand and online access to TV channels, similar to services from major cable operators, this person said.