Is this your next TV?

Posted on 24 Apr 2007 at 12:23

Tomorrow's television will be beamed down the internet rather than an aerial. Stuart Andrews shows you how to get a head start with the next generation of TV devices.

Television is changing, and not in ways you might expect. The days of conventional television programming may be grinding to a close, as a new breed of TV service lets you choose what to watch, when to watch it and even where. We're shifting from a fixed broadcast schedule to a world of on-demand entertainment; from manually setting our recorders to selecting from an archive of catch-up TV; from the TV in the front room to TV in the café or the train. Soon we'll have the power to create our own virtual channels, share favourite shows with others, and explore vast archives to discover new programmes we might never have come across before. It all boils down to one thing: the rapid convergence of the internet and TV.

We're not talking YouTube or Google Video here. These aren't user-created, five-minute clips, but real television programmes and movies from the biggest names in the entertainment business. It encompasses products from companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Sony and BT, services from traditional broadcasters including the BBC, Sky and Channel 4, and ingenious projects from companies you might never have heard of, but which threaten to usurp the familiar industry giants. Joost and Babelgum might not be household names now, but in two years' time, they could be ubiquitous in the way Google has become for search.

And the great thing is you can get involved right now. Many of these services are already up and running. Others are in trial or beta stages, but will have a public launch within the coming year. We'll explain how to find them, then how to integrate them into your existing PC and TV setup... and your life.

Internet TV: IPTV and net TV

Internet TV: Media streaming

Internet TV: Media centres

Author: Stuart Andrews