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Streaming television

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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. Very few cable and satellite television stations stream the same content over the Internet, thus protecting the cable systems' right of first use for the content.

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

The technology of Internet television is no longer as limited by the previous barriers of technology as it once was. It used to be that one of the barriers to wider adoption of Internet television was streaming technology and bandwidth limitations. The bandwidth issue primarily meant that streams were using low bandwidth and that resulted in poor quality. Increasing the bandwidth for the stream being broadcast resulted in a high cost to the providers. Many sites that stream Internet broadcasts have moved to using Flash for videos since it employs vector graphic technology as opposed to turning every bit on and off. Many sites utilize the built-in media player to display the streamed video.

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. Nonetheless, the BBC today simply provides a small window using flash as the vehicle for streaming its videos,

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. Additionally, there are the copyright issues associated with the distribution of media, like video. 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 content.

The models for broad internet television adoption are still on the cutting edge. Few televisions are directly connected to the computer or interent as a television source. Some sites, like http://www.fantasy-tv.com and others are working to improve the internet television model by centralizing access to myriad of existing resources. There are still limitations in knowing what is being streamed at non-VOD sites, so tuning into those sites is truly a hit or miss proposition.

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.
  • 05.06.2006, Argentina - IRIS ONLINE was launch by Telecom Argentina. http://www.telecom.com.ar/iris
  • Fantasy-tv.com - has a focused concentrartion of site links for Internet TV.
  • 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.
  • Jaboozle - an on-demand tv and movie service, specializing on their own content.
  • Zattoo - P2P video streaming service with licensed European and international channels
  • Superchannel - internet community platform including channels such as Lets Go Global and Tenantspin

Implementation

Internet Television services have at least two different models:

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.

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.

The largest obstacle to broad acceptance of Internet television seems to be twofold: broad acceptance of the Internet model compared to how television is used today and the overall directory listings of what is played and when. For most people using Internet television today, there is a fairly direct route at connecting to a Internet site and clicking on what is being streamed or what one wants to watch.

Some of the technological challenges around internet television acceptance are:

  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. Some manufacturers like RCA have developed set top boxes that use proprietary sites to stream theit content to their box.
  2. Incompatible standards (different software and/or hardware are required to watch different providers). Much of this argument is resolved by maintaining various versions of players and codecs on the box connected to the Internet.
  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.

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, Internet TV is more general than IPTV. [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.

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.

Methods used for Internet television

Technologies used for Internet television

See also

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