Internet television

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Internet television (or Internet TV) is television distributed via the Internet.

Contents

[edit] Overview

In the past, television was only distributed via cable, satellite, or terrestrial systems. Today - with the increase in Internet connection speeds, advances in technology, the increase of total number of people online, and the decrease in connection costs - it has become increasingly common to find traditional television content accessible freely and legally over the Internet. In addition to this, new Internet-only television content has appeared which is not distributed via cable, satellite, or terrestrial systems.

Internet TV can come in many forms. For instance, it can

  • be watched on a regular TV (via a Set-top box), or on a computer, or on a portable device (such as a mobile phone)
  • show a channel 'live' (like regular TV), or allow the viewer to select a show to watch on demand ("Video-on-Demand")
  • involve any budget - from home camcorder productions to expensive professional productions
  • be protected from copying, or easily duplicated as a perfect copy
  • be free or paid for - and may be supported by advertisements
  • be an interactive or passive medium

One of the barriers to wider adoption of Internet television is streaming technology, which can be of poor quality and high cost to the providers. The BBC's Dirac project seeks to address this by creating a scalable, high-quality, free codec for streaming video content over the net.

As Internet television becomes more pervasive, efforts are being made by companies to develop the transmission of existing pay-TV channels to regular TV sets over the net, while retaining control over how the media is used. Such control is required in order to protect existing subscription and pay-per-view business models.

[edit] History

The first service available:

The most recent:

  • 01.11.2006, Switzerland - Bluewin TV was launched by Swisscom.
  • 17.10.2006, Germany - T-Home was launched by Deutsche Telecom.
  • 17.08.2006, India - PIO (People of Indian Origin) TV was launched by IndiaTVLive and Archer Media, targeting the Indian diaspora.
  • 29.04.2005, USA - QNNtv - was launched by Multicast Media Networks.

Services on the making:

  • Wi-FiTV - World TV Online.
  • China Broadcast Live (CBL), People of Chinese Origin (PCO TV) - developed by Archer Entertainment Media Communications.
  • Narrowstep - pioneering technology enabling content owners and/or aggregators to build and manage niche television channels online.
  • Premium TV - provides proprietary 'end to end' solutions that enable content owners to cost effectively maximise income and reach through the creation and distribution of multi-platform digital products.
  • Vision TV - developed by British Telecommunications.
  • Webrom TV - provide services allowing organisations to create their own online TV channels.
  • Move Networks - On Monday, January 22, 2007, Fox began streaming videos of 24. Fox, and networks such as the CW, use streaming server and player technology from Move Networks.
  • MediaZone - a leading global online broadcaster specializing in professional content including sports, international and entertainment video programming. Its next generation Social TV platform marries premier content with unprecedented interactivity for a completely new user experience. MediaZone is a wholly owned subsidiary of NASPERS (NASDAQ:NPSN)is the global.
  • Joost - developed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the entrepreneurs who created Kazaa and Skype. It's a P2P video streaming service that will also allow smaller content producers and individuals to upload their content.
  • Joiningthedots.tv - developed by UK MercuryMedia, it will stream especially documentaries that don't fit the needs of the traditional factual channels.
  • JumpTV - a public Canadian company, focusing on ethnic TV.
  • viewmy.tv - social internet tv aggregator (launched Feb 2007)
  • Jaboozle - an on-demand movie service, specializing on their own content.
  • MyEasyTV.com - launched Feb 2007 offers free online TV.
  • Zattoo - P2P video streaming service with licensed European and international channels

[edit] Implementation

Internet Television services have at least two different models:

[edit] Fee based

This type of service is generally funded and supported by large telecom providers and follows the previous cable, satellite or terrestrial systems, based on a subscription fee, adding new features like high-definition TV, video on demand and digital video recording.

The usage of internet protocols to provide two-way communication will also open the way for interactivity with the TV program content, for example making it possible to choose between multiple camera angles, vote on an interactive TV show, or order a product sample.

Europe and Asia have been the leaders in implementing these Internet Television services for paying customers, which are expected to become mainstream in just a few years replacing traditional cable subscriptions. In the US the providers have not shown so much interest about this technology yet. Internet Television is a more interesting alternative to cable TV also in countries where there is a poor cable infrastructure, like India and China.

The software platform chosen by network operators to provide the most recent Internet television services has been Microsoft TV IPTV Edition, which works together with a set-top box.

These services are limited to the offer supplied by the provider meaning that you can only get on your TV set the channels and services you are paying for.

[edit] Free

Free Internet Television is available from the Web, and is accessible without the need for either a set-top-box, a specific carrier or an operator.

The greatest core theme of the free Internet Television model is that it is based on the same publishing model that exists on the Web: it allows access to an open platform, that anyone can access, use and build for, together with the development of open source software, open standards and formats.

Those that create valued and interesting video products have now the opportunity to distribute it directly to a large audience - something impossible with the previous television distributing models (closed software, closed hardware, closed network). The free model has been used around the globe by local and independent television channels aiming for niche target audiences, or to build a collaborative environment for media production, a platform for citizens' media.

[edit] Barriers to Internet TV

There are several barriers to wider adoption of internet television

  1. Lack of set top boxes - these need the latest compression technologies (MPEG-4's H.264/AVC codec; and VC-1). Decoding chips are still new and expensive.
  2. Incompatible standards (different software and/or hardware are required to watch different providers)
  3. Low bandwidth to the home - a standard definition digital signal requires a 2 Mbit/s connection. High definition requires 8 Mbit/s.
  4. Restricted bandwidth in the internet backbone (this will be a problem if many people decide to adopt internet TV via unicast.)
  5. Streaming technology - which can be of poor quality and high cost to the providers. Multicast and P2PTV are some of the suggested solutions.
  6. Old media meeting new media - licensing regulations, existing deals, and uncertainty over payment, security, and advertising has led to only slow steps being taken by the companies which own the TV content.

Either VC-1 or MPEG-4's H.264/AVC codecs are being used for downloadable video (as also used in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVDs). For streaming video content, the BBC's Dirac project seeks to address quality and incompatibility by creating a scalable, high-quality, free codec.

[edit] Terminology

Internet television is a fledgling industry and some of the general terms are buzzwords. An Internet television show is transmitted over the Internet using an "Internet Protocol" (IP), and "Internet TV" is sometimes called "IPTV". However, IPTV is more general than Internet TV.[citation needed]

Internet television is often defined as content being transmitted over an internet (either on the public Internet or on other networks such as closed corporate or private broadband networks).

On the other hand, there is also disagreement about using "IPTV" as a short-form for "Internet television", since an alternative definition and trademark already exists for the initialization.[citation needed] And in that case, IPTV is just a part of Internet television.

[edit] Other names for Internet television

  • IPTV - Internet Protocol Television
  • Television on the desktop (TOD)
  • TV over IP - Television over Internet Protocol
  • Vlog For video web logging.
  • Vodcast For video on demand.

[edit] Methods used for Internet television

[edit] Technologies used for Internet television

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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