Yahoo Inc. is taking another step to merge the relationship with television and the Internet, Bloomberg reported.
 
Yahoo is working with CBS Corp. and home-shopping retailer HSN Inc. to add interactive features to live broadcasts aired on television sets with Yahoo’s Connected TV software, the group’s director of product marketing, Russ Schafer, said at yesterday’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
 
The new features, called Broadcast Interactivity, let viewers click buttons to learn more about an actor or program and even purchase items they see while watching live shows.
 
“The key feature is to sense what you’re watching and provide interactive content through a very subtle prompt,” Schafer told Bloomberg. “It’s the truly interactive TV we’ve been talking about for years.”
 
Yahoo began promoting TVs with its Web software in 2009, and has seen increasing competition from Google Inc. and Apple Inc.
 
Yahoo also announced partnerships with the Showtime and ABC networks and with major advertisers Ford Motor Co. and Mattel Inc.