Panasonic has announced a partnership with Mozilla that will allow the Japan-based consumer electronics giant to build and sell smart TVs based on the Firefox OS.

Firefox OS is Mozilla's mobile operating system for devices whose applications are chiefly intended to be written in HTML5 and JavaScript.

Owners of Panasonic smart TVs will be able to monitor and operate them from within and outside of the homes, and use cloud services to get cross-leveraged content from the Web and broadcasting.

Under the terms of the deal, the Japanese electronics maker will engineer some of its TV's functionality in HTML5, and will allow software application developers to access its TV's hardware through WebAPI.

Panasonic said that basic functions in the next-generation TVs, such as menus and electronic program guide, would be written in HTML5, which would make it possible for developers to easily develop applications for mobile devices like smartphones to remotely access and control the smart TV. Currently, basic functions like menus and EPG are written as embedded programs.

Announcing the partnership, Panasonic added, "In addition, through the web services, next-generation smart TVs can display personalised user interfaces, featuring the user's favourites and even add new functions for multiple users sharing the same screen after devices are purchased."

Rival manufacturer LG used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014 in Las Vegas to officially unveil its usage of open-source webOS as the platform for its smart TVs. South Korea-based LG acquired parts of webOS from computer giant HP in February 2013.