Google is launching the service to move the web to the TV screens across the United States this year autumn with the worldwide launch scheduled for the next year.

CEO Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow full Internet browsing via the television, would be free, and Google would work with a variety of programme makers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers.

"We will work with content providers, but it is very unlikely that we will get into actual content production," Schmidt told journalists after a keynote speech to the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin.

Last week Sony confirmed that it had entered into an agreement with Google to have its TV service on Sony television sets with Samsung also saying it considers using the service.

The announcement comes less than a week after rival Apple unveiled its latest Apple TV product and will intensify a battle for consumers' attention and potentially for the $180 billion global TV advertising market.