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Cable television

Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house. Cable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting (via radio waves) in which a television antenna is required. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephony and similar non television services may also be provided.

The abbreviation CATV is often used to mean "Cable TV". It originally stood for Community Antenna Television, from cable television's origins in 1948: in areas where over-the-air reception was limited by mountainous terrain, large "community antennas" were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes.

It is most commonplace in North America, Europe, Australia and East Asia, though it is present in many other countries, mainly in South America and the Middle East. Cable TV has had little success in Africa, as it is not cost-effective to lay cables in sparsely populated areas, and although so-called "wireless cable" or microwave-based systems are used, "direct-to-home" satellite television is far more popular, especially in South Africa.

Technology

Technically, CATV involves distributing a number of television channels collected at a central location (called a headend) to subscribers within a community by means of a branched network of optical fibers and/or coaxial cables and broadband amplifiers. Since the early 1990s, the most common architecture is the Hybrid fibre-coaxial network.

As in the case of radio broadcasting, the use of different frequencies allows many channels to be distributed through the same cable, without separate wires for each. A set-top box or the tuner of the TV, VCR or radio selects one channel from this mixed signal.

The same program is often simultaneously broadcast by radio waves and distributed by cable. Other programs may be distributed by cable only; rules restricting content (e.g., regarding nudity, profanity, and violence) are often more relaxed for cable than for over-the-air TV.

Traditional cable TV systems worked strictly by way of analog signals (i.e. using standard radio waves) but many modern cable TV systems also employ the use of digital cable technology, which uses compressed digital signals, allowing them to provide many more channels than they could with analog alone. Modern cable TV systems also offer other services such as Video on demand, telephony, and high-speed data.

Cable television service has been regarded as a natural monopoly by many, and most areas are still served by a single provider, though Australia is characterized by extensive duplication. In the United States a monopoly on cable television has historically been enforced by local governments. In order to provide service to individual homes, a cable provider must place its cable wiring along and across local streets. To do so the provider must get permission from the local government(s) that own these streets. This permission comes in the form of a document called a franchise agreement. Most of local government(s) chose to grant permission to only one company. Changes in the law in the past few years have forced local governments to grant permission to other companies to provide service.

Cable television deployments

Americas

Argentina

Cable television had its origins in the 1960s, when a CATV service started to operate in Junin.

Brazil

Cable television is distributed in Brazil by various companies.

Canada

Main article: Multichannel television in Canada

Mexico

The first cable system started to operate in the early 1960s in Monterrey, as a CATV service (an antenna at the top of the Loma Larga, which could get TV signals from South Texas). Most of the other major cities didn't develop cable systems until the late 1980s, due to government censorship. By 1989 the industry had had a major impulse with the founding of Multivision a MMDS system who started to develop its own channels in Spanish and the later development of companies such as Cablemas and Megacable.

Over the past few years, many US networks have started to develop content for the Latin American market, such as CNN en Espanol, MTV, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and others. The country also has a DTH service called SKY (Televisa & News Corp. owned). Recently DirecTV merged with Sky. The dominant company nowadays is Megacable and Grupo HEVI.[1]

United States

The majority of American television viewers get their signal from CATV.

Main article: Cable television in the United States

Asia

Hong Kong

Only one traditional cable provider operates in Hong Kong, i-Cable Communications Limited (branded as "CableTV"). Another three operators offers pay-TV via DSL and Ethernet, they are Now Broadband TV (PCCW), HKBN Digital TV and TVB PayVision.

Many in Hong Kong instead watch subscription TV using satellite systems like STAR TV.

Singapore

StarHub Cable Vision is the sole cable television operator in Singapore, where private ownership of satellite dishes is banned. StarHub Cable Vision was formed as a result of a merger between StarHub and Singapore Cable Vision on 15 May 2002. The latter first began broadcasting as a terrestrial pay-television operator in 1992 as the first cable network was not completed until 1995. Around 15% of households and offices in Singapore are connected to the StarHub network.

Sri Lanka

Lanka Broadband Networks is the only pay television broadcaster using cable networks to serve 10,000 customers.

Thailand

Truevisions[2] is only exclusive CATV in Thailand, formerly known as UBC (United Broadcasting Corporation). Truevision is a subsidiary of True[3] provides CATV only in Bangkok area while DSTV (Digital Satellite TV) outside Bangkok.

Malaysia

Mega TV was launched in 1996 by TV3 as the only cable television service. However, it fail to expand its content, and so, it closed down in 2001, replaced by its competitor, the satellite television network Astro.

Europe

According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, there were 58 million cable households in the European Union as of 31 December 2004, i.e. a rate of penetration of 32 % of the television households. 5.7 millions were connected to digital networks.

Belgium

Belgium is the second most dense cabled country in the world after the Netherlands with over 99% of all households connected to cable television networks. Cable television was deployed nationwide in 1972 as a measure made by the government to eliminate the millions of antennas. Currently most cable companies are active on the triple-play market, offering television, telephone and internet services. Currently the analogue services are phased out to make way for digital television services and high definition television.

Romania

Romania has very high penetration rates for cable television in Europe, with over 79% of all households watching television through a CATV network in 2007 [2]. The market is extremely dynamic, and dominated by two giant companies - Romanian based RCS&RDS and US based UPC-Astral. Both additionally offer IP telephony over coaxial cable and Internet services. The national CATV network is being improved, and most households are being migrated towards digital cable solutions. Digital DTH satellite service is available throughout the country, and accounts for an additional 10-15% of the market, with only about 5% being attributed to terrestrial analogue television. Digital satellite DTH is provided by a number of companies. It is possible that Romania will not migrate to digital terrestrial systems, but completely discontinue this service, since th said investments provide limited appeal.

The reasons for this appeal started in the early '90s. After the fall of the communist regime, in 1989, there were only two state owned TV channels available (see TVR), one only being available in about 20% of the country. Private TV channels were slow to appear, because of lack of experience and high start-up costs (most startups were radio stations or newspapers). Thus, for the first three years, over the air, one would get one or two state channels and one or two local, amateurish private channels, broadcasting only a few hours a day. In this environment, cable TV companies appeared and thrived, providing 15-20 foreign channels for a very low price (at the time 2 USD or less), some with Romanian translation, offering high quality news, entertainment and especially movies or cartoons (one of the ways cable companies advertised was the availability of a cartoon channel, Cartoon Network, appealing to children, which in turn would appeal to their parents). The first two companies to provide CATV were Multicanal in Bucharest and Timis Cablu in Timisoara, both out of business today. Many small, startup firms gradually grew, and coverage increased (coverage wars were frequent in the early period, with many cable boxes smashed, and new cable networks offering "half off for twice the channels" and immediately wiring the building for any willing persons). However, this period soon ended, with consolidation around 1995-1996. Some large companies emerged: Kappa and RCS in Bucharest, Astral in Cluj, UPC in Timisoara, TourImex in Ramnicu Valcea. This consolidation came with gentlemen agreements over areas of control and pricing, with claims of monopoly abounding. This process of consolidation was completed around 2005-2006, when only two big suppliers of cable remained: UPC-Astral and RDS. Internet over coaxial cable has been available since around 2000, and IP telephony (over the CATV infrastructure) since the deregulation of the market in 2003. Currently, cable TV is available in most of the country, including most rural areas (where lives roughly 50% of the population). Satellite digital TV appeared in 2004, providing coverage for the rest of the country, with both RCS&RDS and UPC-Astral having a stake in these companies. IPTV (over DSL) is also planned by Romtelecom through its TV service (Dolce), after offering Satellite digital DTH TV. However, IPTV will not be much of a competition, since the other two big ISPs are also the two biggest CATV providers.

Cable TV is very cheap for all standards, the standard/basic service, offering about 50 channels, is around 20-30 RON/month including VAT (about 7-10 ^), with the most expensive service, offering 10-15 channels more, including some pay-per-view such as HBO or Cinemax, costing no more than 60-70 RON/month (around 20-23 ^).

Republic of Ireland

Main article: Cable television in the Republic of Ireland

Switzerland

In Switzerland, virtually all households have cable TV. Ironically, despite this good coverage, Switzerland has only a few public TV stations (two each for the German, French and Italian-speaking parts of the country); additionally, there is now only one upstart commercial network with coverage comparable to these state-run channels. To watch news or political information, Swiss channels are preferred, but in the entertainment sector (feature movies, comedies, talk shows), private TV stations from Germany, France and Italy are dominant.

United Kingdom

In the UK Cable Television had its origins in 1938, when the first Community Antenna TV systems were set up in towns including Bristol and Hull, for homes which couldn't receive transmissions over the air, operating on the national standard 405-line system. In the 1960s Rediffusion Vision was setup to provide cable television in the newer 625-line and PAL formats.

In the early 1980s Rediffusion Vision supplemented its service with other channels including The Music Box, Mirrorvision, Lifesyle Screensport, Sky Channel and TEN. The service was renamed to Rediffusion Cablevision.

In the United Kingdom, the current generation of cable television began in the late 1980s with the issue of franchises to many local operators. These small operations proved uneconomic and there has been a continuing process of consolidation and re-financing.

By 2000 the two principal cable operators were NTL and Telewest. NTL's cable service was originally known as CableTel and grew rapidly through the acquisition of, among others, ComTel (which itself had bought Telecential), Comcast, Diamond Cable and finally, in 1999, the residential and small business operations of Cable & Wireless. Telewest acquired local cable operators including Eurobell (Plymouth and Sussex) Cable London (North franchise) Birmingham cable and large franchises in the North East and North West of England. The original Telewest cable-co was created after mergers of United Artists and General Cable in the mid 90's. In 2005 it was announced that NTL and Telewest would merge, after a period of co-operation in the preceding few years. This merger was completed on 3 March 2006 with the company being named ntl Incorporated. For the time being the two brand names and services were marketed separately. However, following NTL's acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the NTL and Telewest services were rebranded Virgin Media on 2007-02-08 creating a single cable operator covering more than 95% of the UK cable market.

There are a small number of other surviving cable television companies in the UK outside of NTL including Kingston Communications (East Riding of Yorkshire), WightCable (Isle of Wight) and Smallworld (previously WightCable North) (Ayrshire, Carlisle and Lancashire).

Cable TV faces intense competition from BSkyB's Sky Digital satellite television service. Most channels are carried on both platforms. However, cable often lacks "interactive" features (e.g. text services, and extra video-screens), especially on BSkyB owned channels, and the satellite platform lacks services requiring high degrees of two-way communication, such as true video on demand.

However, subscription-funded digital terrestrial television proved less of a competitive threat. The first system, ITV Digital, went into liquidation in 2002. Top Up TV later replaced it, however this service is shrinking as the DVB-T multiplex owners are finding FTA broadcasting more profitable.

Another potential source of competition in the future will be TV over broadband internet connections; this is known as IPTV. Some IPTV services are currently available in London, while services operated in Hull ceased in April 2006. As the speed and availability of broadband connections increase, more TV content can be delivered using protocols such as IPTV. However, its impact on the market is yet to be measured, as is consumer attitude toward watching TV programmes on computers instead of television sets. At the end of 2006, BT (the UK's former state owned monopoly phone company) started offering BT Vision which is digital freeview TV using an aeriel, but also incorporates on demand TV, delivered over a broadband connection and displayed on a Television. This service was started due to high broadband speeds in the UK. There are plans for a 100 MB/s to be offered.

Oceania

Australia

Cable television services have been available in Australia since 1991 or 1992, with Galaxy TV being the first. It became insolvent in 1997, due to decreasing popularity with the launching of Foxtel and Austar in May of 1995, two cable services that offered more variety than Galaxy TV. Foxtel immediately commenced in supplying programming to Galaxy's subscribers on an interim basis. In 1999 Foxtel was able to significantly boost its customer base by acquiring Galaxy TV's subscribers from the Australis Media liquidator and commenced offering its services on a satellite television platform. There are currently two major and four minor cable television providers in Australia - Foxtel and Optus TV. Minor providers include Austar, TransACT, Bright Telecommunications and Neighbourhood Cable, which only operate in limited areas.

Like the United Kingdom, cable is a minority means of receiving access to subscription television in Australia. Satellite distribution is more common.

Due to its history, financial backing and market dominance, most local versions of channels are either owned directly by Foxtel and Austar or through related companies.

In terms of coverage, Foxtel's cable network covers parts of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Optus's network covers small parts of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, though its restrictive subscription rules means that many people living in apartments or confined living areas may be unable to be connected.

Austar is available by satellite in most of regional and rural Australia, but does have a small cable network in the city of Darwin. TransACT is only available in the city of Canberra, where a custom cable network was developed. A similar situation used to exist in Perth where a small area was covered by Bright Telecommunications (however they closed down after lack of funding) as well in parts of Geelong, Ballarat and Mildura that are reached by Neighbourhood Cable.

New Zealand

TelstraClear operate a cable television network in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch. Customers can subscribe to plans incorporating between 25 and 95 channels. Most content is offered on behalf of Sky Network Television however some channels such as TBN, Discovery Travel and Adventure and Deutsche welle are broadcast exclusively through TelstraClear.

Other cable-based services

Coaxial cables are capable of bi-directional carriage of signals as well as the transmission of large amounts of data. Cable television signals use only a portion of the bandwidth available over coaxial lines. This leaves plenty of space available for other digital services such as broadband internet and cable telephony.

Broadband internet is achieved over coaxial cable by using cable modems to convert the network data into a type of digital signal that can be transferred over coaxial cable. One problem with some cable systems is the older amplifiers placed along the cable routes are unidirectional thus in order to allow for uploading of data the customer would need to use an analog modem to provide for the upstream connection. This limited the upstream speed to 31.2k and prevented the always-on convenience broadband internet typically provides. Many large cable systems have upgraded or are upgrading their equipment to allow for bi-directional signals, thus allowing for greater upload speed and always-on convenience, though these upgrades are expensive.

In North America and Europe many cable operators have already introduced cable telephone service, which operates just like existing fixed line operators. This service involves installing a special telephone interface at the customer's premises that converts the analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring into a digital signal, which is then sent on the local loop (replacing the analog last mile, or POTS) to the company's switching center, where it is connected to the PSTN. The biggest obstacle to cable telephone service is the need for nearly 100% reliable service for emergency calls. One of the standards available for digital cable telephony, PacketCable, seems to be the most promising and able to work with the Quality of Service demands of traditional analog POTS service. The biggest advantage to digital cable telephone service is similar to the advantage of digital cable TV, namely that data can be compressed, resulting in much less bandwidth used than a dedicated analog circuit-switched service. Other advantages include better voice quality and integration to a VoIP network providing cheap or unlimited nationwide and international calling. Note that in many cases, digital cable telephone service is separate from cable modem service being offered by many cable companies and does not rely on IP traffic or the Internet.

Beginning in 2004 in the United States, the traditional cable television providers and traditional telecommunication companies increasingly compete in providing voice, video and data services to residences. The combination of TV, telephony and Internet access is commonly called triple play regardless of whether CATV or telcos offer it.

IPTV

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered by using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks.

For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be bundled with Internet services such as Web access and VoIP. The commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is referred to as "Triple Play" service (adding mobility is called "Quadruple Play"). IPTV is typically supplied by a service provider using a closed network infrastructure. This closed network approach is in competition with the delivery of TV content over the public Internet, called Internet Television. In businesses, IPTV may be used to deliver television content over corporate LANs.

History

In 1994, ABC's World News Now was the first television show to be broadcast over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe videoconferencing software.

Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10, 1998.[1]

Kingston Communications, a regional telecommunications operator in UK, launched KIT (Kingston Interactive Television), a DSL-based broadband interactive TV service in September 1999 after conducting various TV and VoD trials. The operator re-launched its VoD service in October 2001 via Yes TV, a provider of IP-based VoD service and solutions. Kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VOD over ADSL.

In the past, this technology has been restricted by low broadband penetration. In the coming years, however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace as broadband was available to more than 200 million households worldwide in the year 2005, projected to grow to 400 million by the year 2010. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity from their existing markets and as a defensive measure against encroachment from more conventional Cable Television services. In the mean time, there are thousands of IPTV installations within schools, corporations, and other institutions that do not require the use of wide area connectivity.

It is important to note that there has historically been many different definitions of "IPTV" including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems. Although (in Mid 2007) it is premature to say that there is a full consensus of exactly what IPTV should mean, there is no doubt that the most widely used definition today is for single or multiple program transport streams which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "Final Mile" to the consumer's premises. This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service, and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.

By contrast "Internet TV" generally refers to transport streams sent over IP networks (normally the Internet)from outside the network that connects to the users premises. An Internet TV provider has no control over the final delivery and so broadcasts on a "best effort" basis. Elementary streams over IP networks and proprietary variants as used by websites such as YouTube are now rarely considered to be IPTV services.

Architecture

Broadcast IPTV has two major architecture forms: free and fee based. As of June 2006, there are over 1,300 free IPTV channels available. This sector is growing rapidly and major television broadcasters worldwide are transmitting their broadcast signal over the Internet. These free IPTV channels require only an Internet connection and an Internet enabled device such as a personal computer, HDTV connected to a computer or even a 3G cell/mobile phone to watch the IPTV broadcasts. See also: Internet television Mobile TV

In December 2005, independently produced mariposaHD became the first original IPTV broadcast available in an HDTV format. Various Web portals offer access to these free IPTV channels. Some cite the ad-sponsored availability of TV series such as Lost and Desperate Housewives as indicators that IPTV will become more prevalent.

Because IPTV uses standard networking protocols, it promises lower costs for operators and lower prices for users. Using set-top boxes with broadband Internet connections, video can be streamed to households more efficiently than current coaxial cable. ISPs are upgrading their networks to bring higher speeds and to allow multiple High Definition TV channels.

In 2006, AT&T launched its U-Verse IPTV service. Comprised of a national head end and regional video serving offices, AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. While using IP protocols, AT&T has built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.

Local IPTV, as used by businesses for Audio Visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of: a) Conventional TV reception equipment and IPTV encoders b) IPTV Gateways that take broadcast MPEG channels and IP wrap them to create multicast streams.

IPTV uses a two-way digital broadcast signal sent through a switched telephone or cable network by way of a broadband connection and a set-top box programmed with software (much like a cable or DSS box) that can handle viewer requests to access to many available media sources.

Protocols

IPTV covers both live TV (multicasting) as well as stored video (Video on Demand VOD). The playback of IPTV requires either a personal computer or a set-top box connected to a TV. Video content is typically compressed using either a MPEG-2 or a MPEG-4 codec and then sent in an MPEG transport stream delivered via IP Multicast in case of live TV or via IP Unicast in case of Video on Demand. IP Multicast is a method in which information can be sent to multiple computers at the same time. The newly released (MPEG-4) H.264 codec is increasingly used to replace the older MPEG-2 codec.

In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used for:

Live TV is using IGMP version 2 for connecting to a multicast stream (TV channel) and for changing from one multicast stream to another (TV channel change).

VOD is using the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

Currently, the only alternatives to IPTV are traditional TV distribution technologies such as terrestrial, satellite and cable. However, cable can be upgraded to two-way capability and can thus also carry IPTV.

NPVR (network-based Private Video Recorder)

Network Personal Video Recording is a consumer service where real-time broadcast television is captured in the network on a server allowing the end user to access the recorded programs on the schedule of their choice, rather than being tied to the broadcast schedule. The NPVR system provides ultimate time-shifted viewing of broadcast programs, allowing subscribers to record and watch programs at their convenience, without the added expense and maintenance needed for a hard drive-equipped set-top box. It's like having a PVR built into the network. In this way, services usually provided by popular consumer electronics hardware can be offered as network services. Subscribers can watch what they want, when they want, without needing yet another device or remote control.

Advantages

The IP-based platform offers significant advantages, including the ability to integrate television with other IP-based services like high speed Internet access and VoIP.

A switched IP network also allows for the delivery of significantly more content and functionality. In a typical TV or satellite network, using broadcast video technology, all the content constantly flows downstream to each customer, and the customer switches the content at the set-top box. The customer can select from as many choices as the telecomms, cable or satellite company can stuff into the "pipe" flowing into the home. A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer's home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer's choice is less restricted by the size of the "pipe" into the home. This also implies that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks.

Interactivity

An IP-based platform also allows significant opportunities to make the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized. The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor's name, or a picture-in-picture functionality that allows them to "channel surf" without leaving the program they're watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player's stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they're away from home.

VoD

VoD stands for Video on Demand. VoD permits a customer to browse an online movie catalogue, to watch trailers and to select the movie he or she wants to watch. The playout of the selected movie starts nearly instantaneously on the customer's TV or PC.

Technically, when the customer selects the movie, a point-to-point unicast connection is set up between the customer's decoder (SetTopBox or PC) and the delivering streaming server. The signalling for the trick play functionality (pause, slow-motion, wind/rewind etc.) is assured by RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).

The most common codecs used for VoD are MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1.

In order to avoid content piracy, the VoD content (the movie) is generally encrypted.

Triple Play

Traditionally, TV has come down one wire cable TV or a terrestrial antenna, the telephone has used another (the Plain Old Telephone Service - POTS), and the Internet has been available on either. Both cable operators and telco operators are starting to offer all three on one wire, which is more "cost effective". Triple play is an expression used by service operators describing a bundle of telephony, data and video via a single connection. Triple play also refers to the combination of three services (typically Video, Voice and Internet) bundled together to entice customers to purchase all three products at a reduced rate. A quadruple play bundle usually includes a wireless component. Note that "Triple Play" has nothing to do with IPTV in its pure meaning but apparently can be said one element of Video.

IPTV based Converged Services

Another advantage of an IP-based network is the opportunity for integration and convergence. Converged services implies interaction of existing services in a seamless manner to create new value added services. One good example is On-Screen Caller ID, getting Caller ID on your TV and the ability to handle it (send it to voice mail, etc). IP-based services will help to enable efforts to provide consumers anytime-anywhere access to content over their televisions, PCs and cell phones, and to integrate services and content to tie them together. Within businesses and institutions, IPTV eliminates the need to run a parallel infrastructure to deliver live and stored video services.

Limitations

Because IPTV requires real-time data transmission and uses the Internet Protocol, it is sensitive to: a) packet loss and delays if the IPTV connection is not fast enough; or b) picture break-up or loss if the streamed data is unreliable. This latter problem has proved particularly troublesome when attempting to stream IPTV across wireless links. Improvements in wireless technology are now starting to provide equipment to solve the problem.

In the past, television was only distributed by cable, satellite, or terrestrial systems. The primary models for Internet television are streaming Internet TV or selectable video on an Internet location, typically a website.

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 television utilizes the connections of the Internet to deliver video from a source to a target device. Some of the ways in which Internet delivered television is used include:

watching on a regular TV (via a direct connection from a computer or a Set-top box), or on a computer, or on a portable device (such as a mobile phone) showing a channel 'live' (like regular TV), or allow the viewer to select a show to watch on demand ("Video-on-Demand" or VOD).

viewing anything from low budget, home camcorder productions to expensive professional productions The medium supports very broad variation, allowing for copy protected streams or streams that can be recorded. Sources of Internet TV can be free, subscription- or fee-based, or supported by advertisements.

The barriers to wider adoption of Internet television in the past have been streaming technology and bandwidth limitations. The bandwidth issue primarily meant that streams were using low bandwidth and that resulted in poor quality. The BBC's Dirac project seeks to address the technological barriers by creating a scalable, high-quality, free codec for streaming video content over the net.

As Internet television becomes more pervasive, some companies have made efforts 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. Additionally, there are the copyright issues associated with the distribution of media. The challenges lie in seeking to maintain the protections of a copyright and the revenues associated with it, while moving to another delivery model for video.

Internet Video on Demand (VOD) offers a different approach, and it is interactive, requiring the viewer to select specific videos to watch. The usage of internet protocols to provide two-way communication will also open the way for interactivity with the video content, for example making it possible to choose between multiple camera angles, vote on an interactive TV show while watching it, or order a product sample.

Implementation

Internet Television services have at least two different models:

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. It is easily viewed by connecting the television set to the video output of the computer and accessing the streaming video.

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.The first country in the world to have its own Internet TV model was Cyprus, which launched Cyprusitv.com in March 2006. This project was created by Dean Di Libero using the Narrowstep telvOS operating system

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. It isn't strictly a citizen's format either as the broadcast model used in television for decades will begin to find competition in Internet television supported by advertising.

iPlayer

On July 27, 2007 the BBC released their iPlayer (as public beta test software) to UK licence fee payers offering free BBC television content via the internet.

Subscription based

This type of service has been generally funded and supported by large telecom providers and is seeing a wide range of competition from even cable providers and broadcast networks. It follows the cable, satellite or terrestrial pay-per-view systems, based on a subscription fee, adding new features like high-definition TV, video on demand and digital video recording.

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.

Some of the technological arguments to broad internet television acceptance are:

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. Incompatible standards (different software and/or hardware are required to watch different providers) Low bandwidth to the home - a standard definition digital signal requires a 2 Mbit/s connection. High definition requires 8 Mbit/s. Restricted bandwidth in the internet backbone (this will be a problem if many people decide to adopt internet TV via unicast.) Streaming technology - which can be of poor quality and high cost to the providers. Multicast and P2PTV are some of the suggested solutions. 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

4oD

In 2007 Channel 4 released their 4oD service to download paid Channel 4 televsion content via the internet.

Terminology

There are many ways to deliver video over an IP network and many buzzwords have been applied to these various ways, many of which are still used completely interchangeably even by professionals in the field.

The current trend is to restrict the term IPTV to those services operated and controlled by the same company that operates and controls the "Final Mile" to the consumers' premises. This allows a certain level of service to be guaranteed. Further, an IPTV service requires the video and audio to be carried in a single MPEG2 transport stream over the IP network. Many services can be carried in a single transport stream.

Internet TV now normally refers to those services sourced over the Internet by service providers that cannot control the final delivery. Again, transport streams in IP packets are used with one or more services per transport stream.

Other TV-like services are available on the Internet but these send the video and the audio in separate streams over the IP network and do not use transport streams. A recent trend from companies such as Joost and Babelgum is to use proprietary Peer to Peer P2P networking technology to deliver - in real time rather than as file downloads - TV services over the internet.

Whilst the differences may seem irrelevant to the consumer, the underlying technology employed is quite different and directly affect the range and quality of service that can be achieved. IPTV users are limited to a relatively small range of programs but at high quality, whereas an Internet TV user may have access to many thousands of channels from literally all over the world but without any guarantee of being able to watch them. Streaming services such as YouTube generally offer User Generated Content UGC as individual short clips rather than professionally produced programs or films grouped as a channel.

Other names for Internet television

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

Methods used for Internet television

Broadcatching For a P2PTV paradigm in use today. Streaming

Technologies used for Internet television

BitTorrent Dirac HTTP Nullsoft Streaming Video, a technology used by AOL to deliver Internet based video content. RSS RSS enclosure RTSP SMIL Theora WTVML

Digital television

Webcast Web TV P2PTV Joost Miro Zattoo

P2PTV

The term P2PTV refers to peer-to-peer software applications designed to redistribute video streams or files on a p2p network, typically TV stations across the world. The draw to these applications is significant because they have the potential to make every TV channel in the world global.

The benefit of using peer-to-peer technology is similar to that of standard peer-to-peer software. Each user, while downloading, is also uploading, thus contributing to the overall available bandwidth. The video quality of the channels typically depends on how many users are watching; the video quality is better if there are more users. Similarly, downloading video is faster if there are more users.

Many P2PTV applications make use of the BitTorrent technology.[citation needed]

The majority of applications available broadcast mainly Asian TV stations, with the exception of TVUPlayer, which carries a number of North American stations such as Comedy Central, Spike TV, and Fox News.

Advantages

When used as a method of distributing video using files (downloads), it can greatly enhance distribution because files are downloaded more quickly Contrary to a previous viewpoint (above), it has been demonstrated that Peer-to-Peer downloading can save substantial amounts of bandwidth costs because many peers are likely to be within a single ISP (Internet Service Provider) and hence "interconnection" costs are reduced. From a distribution point of view, Peer-to-Peer technologies facilitate better and more targeted distribution because sharing can take place within communities having common interests, communities that would typically already exist to take advantage of the content.

Applications

Alluvium Babelgum CoolStreaming Cybersky-TV LiveStation Miro Feidian Joost Octoshape PeerCast PPLive PPStream ReelTime.com TVants Tvuplayer Vuze Zattoo ReelJoe ReelJoe